Ill  ill 


SOCIAL   STRUGGLES 
IN  ANTIQUITY 


SOCIAL  STRUGGLES 
IN  ANTIQUITY 


BY 

M.  BEER 


TRANSLATED    BY 

H.  J.  STENNING 

AND 

REVISED  BY  THE  AUTHOR 


BOSTON 

SMALL,  MAYNARD  &  COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 


PRINTED   IN    GREAT   BRITAIN 


cf 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION  ......  y 

CHAPTER   I 

PALESTINE  .......         20 

CHAPTER   II 

GREECE       ........         51 

CHAPTER   III 

THE   PRACTICE   OF   COMMUNISM    IN    SPARTA  .  .         61 

CHAPTER   IV 

COMMUNISTIC   THEORIES    IN   ATHENS  .  .  .         81 

CHAPTER   V 

ROME  ........       128 

CHAPTER   VI 

ROMAN    SOCIAL   CRITICS  .....       166 

CHAPTER  VII 

PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  .....       182 

INDEX        ...  .....       219 


SllZ^C 


SOCIAL    STRUGGLES    IN 
ANTIQUITY 

INTRODUCTION 

I.  The  Meaning  of  the  Term  "  Antiquity." 

From  the  purely  chronological  standpoint, 
world  history  is  commonly  divided  into 
antiquity,  the  middle  ages,  the  modern  times 
and  most  modern  times. ^  When  looked  at 
closely,  this  historical  division  proves  to  be 
inadequate,  as  it  tells  us  practically  nothing. 
When  we  speak  of  antiquity,  we  think  of 
the  empires  of  Mesopotamia  and  Egypt,  and 
of  the  old  Hebrews,  Greeks  and  Romans. 
But  had  the  Kelts,  Teutons  and  Slavs  no 
antiquity?  And  had  the  ancient  peoples 
no  middle  ages,  and  no  modern  times? 
World  history  is  not  the  record  of  a  homo- 

1  Antiquity,  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  dissolution 
of  the  Roman  Empire;  middle  ages,  from  the  fourth 
century  to  the  discovery  of  America;  modern  times, 
from  the  fifteenth  century  to  the  French  Revolution; 
most  modern  times,  from  the  eighteenth  century  onwards. 

7 


8        SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

geneous  humanity,  which  had  remained  in 
the  period  of  antiquity  until  the  time  of  the 
migration  of  races,  and  then  entered  upon  the 
consecutive  stages  of  the  middle  ages,  and 
modern  times.  It  treats  rather  of  different 
States,  Empires,  Races  and  Peoples,  all  of 
which  passed  through  their  own  stages  of 
development  at  different  periods,  without 
waiting  for  others  to  reach  the  same  level. 
It  does  not  inform  us,  for  instance,  how  it 
could  come  about  that  modern  ideas  may  be 
discovered  in  antiquity,  or  that  the  beginnings 
of  the  Renaissance  in  Europe  were  mentally 
connected  with  ancient  Greece,  and  that  we 
moderns  must  often  revert  to  ideas  and 
opinions  which  were  enunciated  by  the 
ancients  more  than  two  thousand  years  ago. 
Were  these  thinkers  superior  to  time  and 
space,  and  did  they  receive  their  wisdom 
through  inspiration  ? 

We  shall  get  nearer  the  truth  if  we  assume 
that  "  antiquity "  did  not  form  a  mental 
and  historical  unity.  Even  the  old  Hebrews, 
Greeks  and  Romans  had  their  period  of 
antiquity,  their  middle  ages,  and  their 
modern  times.  It  was  only  that  they 
appeared  on  the  stage  of  human  history 
earlier  than  the  Teutons  and  Slavs,  and  they 


INTRODUCTION  9 

likewise  passed  through  their  different  periods, 
evolved  certain  institutions  and  ideas,  which 
everywhere  corresponded  more  or  less  to 
these  periods.  Thus  the  various  peoples 
follow  each  other  in  the  order  of  time,  but 
their  social  and  mental  development  follows 
a  parallel  course,  with  the  exception  of  the 
most  modern  period  which  the  ancients  did 
not  pass  through,  having  been  unable  to 
produce  the  Industrial  Revolution  on  the 
application  of  science  to  industry.  If,  there- 
fore, the  Latins  and  Teutons  in  the  fifteenth 
and  sixteenth  centuries  had  mental  affinities 
with  the  Greeks  of  the  sixth  and  fifth  centuries 
B.C.,  this  happened  only  because  the  Greeks 
of  that  time,  having  left  their  antiquity  and 
their  middle  ages  behind  them,  were  living  in 
the  epoch  of  their  renaissance,  and  this  period 
brought  forth  corresponding  mental  products. 
Each  of  these  periods  has  its  specific  social, 
economic  and  intellectual  features.  In  an- 
tiquity, or  more  correctly  in  the  youth  of 
peoples,  men  are  everywhere  linked  together 
by  blood  relationship  in  the  clan  and  the 
tribe,  and  live  in  common,  on  the  basis  of 
equality,  knowing  neither  private  property 
in  land,  nor  monogamy,  nor  towns;  mental 
life   is   very   primitive;     custom   and   habits 


10      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

dominate  the  simple  life,  which  is  mostly 
nomadic,  and  in  any  case  not  bound  up 
with  specific  territories.  Chiefs,  judges  or 
"  kings "  are  at  the  head  of  the  people. 
The  art  of  writing  is  unknown,  and  the  tribes 
in  question  do  not  themselves  describe  their 
social  institutions.  For  our  knowledge  of 
this  period  we  either  have  to  thank  travellers 
from  a  country  on  a  higher  level  of  civilisation 
who  visit  the  district  of  the  primitive  tribes, 
such  as,  for  example,  Caesar  and  Tacitus  in 
respect  to  the  old  Teutons,  the  discoverers 
of  America  in  respect  to  the  Indian  tribes, 
or  we  moderns  reconstruct  the  original  insti- 
tutions from  the  old  legends  and  traditions 
as  well  as  from  the  remains  of  the  old  insti- 
tutions which  have  survived  into  the  time  of 
recorded  history.  And  as  we  have  discovered 
that  there  is  a  certain  regularity  in  the 
development  of  peoples,  we  are  justified  in 
making  a  generahsation  or  devising  a  theory 
that  all  peoples  in  the  primitive  social  stage 
were  unacquainted  with  individual  property 
in  land,  lived  on  the  basis  of  equality,  and 
were  organised  in  tribes. 

The  primitive  period  ends  when  the  tribes 
become  settled,  and  are  gradually  organised 
on  a  territorial  basis  (in  communities,  villages, 


INTRODUCTION  11 

towns,  provinces  and  countries),  devoting 
themselves  to  agriculture.  The  settlers  en- 
deavour to  continue  the  old  social  form,  as 
they  do  not  know  of  any  other,  but  the  new 
economic  conditions  require  a  new  order, 
and  soon  the  former  homogeneous  society 
begins  to  disintegrate  into  class  divisions. 
Towns  are  built ;  trade  and  commerce  begins 
to  develop;  and  common  ownership  is  re- 
placed by  private  property. 

Adaptation  to  the  new  conditions  does  not 
proceed  smoothly.  Those  who  suffer  injury 
and  oppression,  and  those  who  are  dispossessed 
or  loaded  with  debts,  cling  to  the  old  and 
vanishing  equality,  hold  it  fast  in  their 
memories  and  idealise  it,  partly  as  Paradise, 
partly  as  the  Golden  Age.  The  biblical 
account  of  the  Garden  of  Eden,  and  the 
expulsion  from  it  of  the  first  human  beings 
(second  and  third  chapters  of  Genesis),  and 
the  verses  of  the  Greek  poet  Hesiod  {Works 
and  Days,  verses  108-170)  upon  the  Golden 
Age  and  its  disappearance  are  the  oldest 
recorded  expressions  of  this  sentiment  which 
penetrated  the  whole  of  antiquity.  Internal 
conflicts  arise  early;  the  old  tribal  chiefs — 
the  so-called  "  kings  "  or  **  judges  " — yield 
to  the  aristocracy,  and  dominion  passes  to 


12      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

the  great  landowners.  At  this  point  we  are 
well  into  the  "  middle  ages."  Writing  and 
religious  dogma  first  arise  at  this  stage;  a 
mythology  or  a  theology  makes  its  appearance ; 
laws  are  written  down;  the  ten  command- 
ments of  Israel,  the  laws  of  Draco  in  Greece, 
and  in  Rome  the  twelve  tables  of  laws.  The 
"  middle  ages  "  of  the  Israelites  commenced 
in  the  tenth  century  B.C. ;  at  that  time  the 
Israelites  still  had  kings,  but  the  real  power 
was  vested  in  the  landowners — except  per- 
haps at  the  time  of  David  and  Solomon. 
The  middle  ages  of  the  Greeks  began  about 
the  year  looo,  and  in  the  eighth  century  in 
the  case  of  the  Romans. 

In  the  course  of  the  middle  ages  trade  and 
industry  developed,  and  was  carried  on  by 
the  town  burghers — the  bourgeoisie.  When 
the  latter  was  sufficiently  strengthened,  the 
middle  ages  were  nearing  their  close.  The 
nobles  either  assimilated  themselves  to  the 
bourgeoisie,  or  suffered  extinction;  the  old 
systems  of  mythological  and  theological 
dogma  are  shaken,  and  new  religious  and 
philosophical  ideas  make  headway;  natural 
science  comes  into  its  own ;  art  acquires  more 
freedom  and  variety;  the  feudal  bonds  are 
dissolved — the    Renaissance    has    begun.     It 


INTRODUCTION  18 

commenced  in  Greece  in  the  sixth  century; 
in  Rome  in  the  second  century;  in  Israel 
this  socio-economic  development  was  inter- 
rupted by  the  national  disasters  :  in  the  year 
722  Israel  (the  northern  Hebrew  kingdom  with 
Samaria  as  its  capital)  was  vanquished  and 
destroyed  by  Assyria;  in  the  year  586  the 
same  fate  befell  Judea  (the  southern  Hebrew 
kingdom  with  Jerusalem  as  its  centre) ;  it 
was  destroyed  by  the  Babylonians;  but  the 
religious  evolution  was  not  only  not  inter- 
rupted, it  was  reinforced.  In  accordance 
with  the  spirit  of  the  new  time  the  Jews  slowly 
attained  to  a  conception  of  ethical  mono- 
theism; the  Greeks  to  moral  philosophy, 
and  their  leading  thinkers  to  monotheism 
and  social  ethics  (Socrates,  Plato  and  the 
Stoics).  The  social  struggles  which  broke  out 
in  the  middle  ages  became  more  acute  in 
the  modern  times;  in  Israel  the  poor  against 
the  rich;  in  Greece  the  popular  masses  (the 
Demos)  against  the  usurers  and  expropriators, 
later  the  Proletariat  against  Capital;  in 
Rome  the  Plebeians  against  the  Patricians, 
the  destitute  against  the  rich,  the  slave 
multitudes  against  their  oppressors.  The 
chief  demands  were  :  the  cancellation  of 
debts  and  redistribution  of  the  land. 


14      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES  IN  ANTIQUITY 

Social  reforms  were  introduced,  probably 
at  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century  in 
Sparta;  in  621  in  Judea;  594  (Solon)  in 
Athens;  367  and  133  in  Rome.  In  Sparta 
the  class  struggle  was  suspended  for  several 
centuries;  on  the  other  hand,  it  raged  ever 
more  furiously  in  Athens,  and  produced  the 
greatest  social  philosopher  of  ancient  times  : 
Plato  (born  427,  died  347) ;  likewise  it  brought 
forth  a  theory  of  Communism  and  of  Natural 
Right.  The  social  struggles  of  Rome  exer- 
cised little  intellectual  influence  of  a  revolu- 
tionary nature,  as  generally  speaking  the 
Romans  were  not  an  intellectual  people,  and 
contributed  nothing  to  the  advance  of  religion, 
philosophy  and  social  ideas;  Roman  culture 
was  a  pale  and  belated  imitation  of  Greek 
culture.  The  Romans  appeared  to  have  ex- 
pended their  entire  mental  energy  upon  war 
and  the  subjection  of  foreign  peoples,  as  well  as 
upon  the  establishment  of  the  right  of  private 
property.  In  any  history  of  intellectual 
achievements  (jurisprudence  excepted)  the 
Romans  occupy  a  quite  subordinate  position. 

A  glance  at  the  economics  and  politics  of 
antiquity  reveals  the  great  difference  between 
that  time  and  to-day.  First  we  notice  the 
complete    absence    of    machinery    and    fine 


INTRODUCTION  15 

tools,  and  in  their  stead  we  find  multitudes 
of  slaves;  in  the  beginning  debtors  were 
enslaved  by  their  creditors,  and  then  slaves 
were  recruited  from  prisoners  of  war  and 
conquered  natives,  or  from  men  who  were 
captured  by  slave-dealers,  and  bought  whole- 
sale in  the  markets  of  Greece  and  Rome,  to 
be  subjected  to  the  most  ruthless  exploitation. 
Among  the  Jews  there  were  few  slaves.  The 
general  aspect  of  the  State  also  appears  to  be 
quite  different.  For  centuries  the  State  con- 
noted only  one  town  and  its  immediate 
surroundings,  the  most  famous  examples 
being  Athens,  Sparta  and  Rome.  Such  a 
city-state  was  called  by  the  Greeks  Polls 
(from  whence  "  pohtics  ")  and  in  Latin  civitas 
(from  whence  "  civihsation  ").  These  city- 
states  were  therefore  small  territories  con- 
taining about  30,000  to  40,000  free  citizens. 
In  Greece  there  were  several  city-states  of 
this  type,  and  likewise  in  Italy.  Partly 
through  war,  partly  through  treaties  of 
alliance,  they  united  to  form  a  great  State. 
Each  free  citizen  was  a  soldier  at  the  same 
time,  and  productive  labour  devolved  on  the 
slave  multitudes.  First  the  Romans  gradually 
created  an  empire  (Imperium)  with  ruling 
classes   and  subjugated  peoples.     Later   the 


16      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

Romans  developed  feudalism  and  villanage, 
when  slave  labour  had  proved  to  be  unprofit- 
able or  inexpedient. 

2.  Ancient  Communistic  Theory  :  Natural 
Rights. 

We  have  already  seen  how  the  expropriated 
sections  of  the  people  at  the  beginning  of  the 
middle  ages  clung  to  the  traditions  of  the  old 
state  of  equality,  and  idealised  the  past. 
The  condition  of  nature  or  the  primitive 
society  became  an  ideal  to  which  mankind 
must  return.  In  his  work  on  "  Laws " 
(Third  Book,  second  and  third  chapters), 
Plato  wrote  as  follows  about  the  men  of 
primitive  society  : 

Hence  in  those  days  mankind  were  not  very  poor, 
nor  was  poverty  the  cause  of  difference  among  them ; 
and  rich  they  could  not  have  been,  having  neither  gold 
nor  silver — such  at  that  time  was  their  condition.  And 
the  community  which  has  neither  poverty  nor  riches 
will  always  have  the  noblest  principles ;  in  it  there  is 
no  insults  or  injustice,  nor  again  are  there  any  conten- 
tions or  envyings.  And  therefore  they  were  good,  and 
also  because  they  were  what  is  called  simple-minded. 
Would  not  many  generations  living  on  in  a  simple 
manner,  although  ruder  perhaps  and  more  ignorant  of 
the  arts  generally,  although  inferior  to  the  men  of  our 
day  in  these  respects,  be  simpler  and  more  manly,  and 
also  more  temperate  and  altogether  more  just?     They 


INTRODUCTION  17 

could  hardly  have  wanted  lawgivers,  for  they  had  no 
laws  at  this  early  period;  they  lived  by  habit  and  the 
customs  of  their  ancestors. 

The  doctrine  of  equality  of  natural  con- 
dition was  then  developed  further,  for  at  the 
time  of  Aristotle  (the  disciple  of  Plato  and 
tutor  of  Alexander  the  Great)  the  opinion  was 
already  widespread  "  that  the  dominion  of 
masters  over  slaves  is  against  nature,  and  that 
the  distinction  between  bond  and  free  has 
not  been  made  by  nature,  but  only  by  human 
laws;  and  as  this  signifies  an  interference 
with  the  operations  of  nature  it  is  therefore 
an  injustice  "  (Aristotle's  Politics y  i.  3). 

Both  these  quotations  from  Plato  and 
Aristotle  contain  a  good  fragment  of  natural 
rights.  The  perfecting  and  diffusion  of  this 
conception  was,  however,  the  work  of  the 
Stoa  in  the  third  century.  The  founder  of 
the  Stoic  school  of  thought  was  Zeno,  who 
flourished  about  the  year  300.  Since  the 
second  century  B.C.  the  disciples  of  this  school 
have  exercised  a  very  considerable  influence 
in  Greek  cultured  circles,  upon  the  thinkers 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  upon  the  whole 
of  civilised  and  Christian  Europe  until  the 
present  day.  All  the  thinkers  of  Utopian 
Communism   and  of  Anarchist  Communism 


18      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES  IN  ANTIQUITY 

have,    in    great   measure,    come   under   this 
influence. 

The  doctrine  of  natural  rights  is  a  protest 
against  the  civil  and  legal  institutions  of  the 
State  which  have  arisen  on  the  basis  of 
private  property.  It  is  an  ideahsation  of 
the  democratic  conditions  of  equaUty  which 
characterised  primitive  communism.  The 
appeal  to  nature,  the  cry,  "  Back  to  nature," 
is  a  condemnation  of  civilisation,  and  likewise 
a  summons,  either  to  revert  to  the  old  con- 
ditions, or  to  adopt  them  as  the  ideal  for  the 
legal  and  social  transformation  of  the  new 
conditions.  The  new  age,  which  gave  an 
impulse  to  the  growth  of  towns,  and  the 
development  of  trade  and  industry,  and  which 
destroyed  the  remains  of  common  property 
in  land,  represented  a  revolt  against  nature, 
agriculture  and  the  simple  manners  of  country 
life,  and  a  turning  towards  an  unnatural, 
artificial  life,  involving  luxury,  manifold 
activity,  and  a  labyrinth  of  legal  enactments 
and  State  regulations.  In  the  primitive 
society  there  were  no  man-made  laws,  no 
State,  no  external  coercive  institutions. 
Nature,  penetrated  and  filled  with  the  divine 
spirit,  was  regulated  by  innate  laws,  which 
enjoined  goodness,  justice  and  righteousness. 


INTRODUCTION  19 

The  ethics  of  natural  laws  were  plainly  valid, 
and  were  dictated  by  human  reason.  They 
were  above  human  edicts,  or  what  is  called 
positive  law.  They  held  good  for  all  beings 
who  bore  the  stamp  of  humanity;  all  men 
were  free  and  equal. 

In  the  primitive  state  of  mankind,  in  the 
Golden  Age,  and  in  the  epoch  before  the  Fall, 
the  laws  of  nature  or  reason  prevailed;  men 
lived  together  without  the  State,  without 
external  coercion,  without  legal  regulations 
and  tutelage,  and  followed  the  natural  in- 
junctions to  do  good  and  be  righteous.  But 
the  succeeding  generations  were  corrupted; 
greed,  discontent  and  internal  strife  appeared, 
and  men  created  the  State,  private  property, 
and  the  multitudinous  laws,  without  thereby 
attaining  to  the  old  happiness.  Human 
society  became  sick  and  suffered.  The  only 
remedy  was  to  abandon  the  artificial  institu- 
tions, and  return  to  the  natural,  and  live  in 
harmony  with  nature. 

The  Stoa  were  anarchist-communists  and 
their  outlook  was  international.  In  this  they 
resembled  the  Jewish  prophets,  but  the  latter 
looked  only  to  Jahveh  for  guidance,  while  the 
former  found  their  lawgiver  in  divine  nature. 
Both  tendencies  met  in  primitive  Christianity. 


CHAPTER  I 

PALESTINE 

I.  Social  Conditions, 

As  hordes  of  nomads  from  the  north  Arabian 
and  east  Egyptian  deserts  the  Hebrews  in- 
vaded Canaan  in  the  twelfth  century  B.C. 
Organised  in  tribes  and  clans  on  the  principle 
of  blood  relationship,  their  leaders  brought 
them  to  conquer  new  fruitful  territory,  and  to 
settle  down.  Bold  and  easily  excited,  but 
hardened  by  the  privations  of  their  life  in  the 
wilderness,  and  welded  together  by  their  age- 
long tribal  discipline,  they  overcame,  in  the 
course  of  protracted  struggles,  the  resistance 
of  the  Canaanites,  who  were  superior  to  them 
in  civilisation,  and  took  possession  of  their 
country.  The  victorious  barbarians  divided 
the  land  by  lot  among  their  tribes,  and  the 
latter  among  their  families.  Individual  pro- 
perty in  land  was  at  first  unknown  to  them; 
the  tribes  regarded  the  partitioned  land  as 
a  common  possession,  and  the  families  held 


PALESTINE  21 

their  lands  for  the  benefit  of  the  tribe  (Num. 
xxxvi.). 

A  special  term  for  property  is  unknown 
in  Hebrew.  The  word  which  corresponds 
nearest  to  this  idea  is  "  nachlah  "  (hereditary 
portion).  A  property  owner  is  called  **  lord," 
or  "  baal "  in  Hebrew,  a  common  Semitic 
word  which  signifies  man  or  generator.  Partly 
as  a  result  of  uninterrupted  possession  and  of 
individual  cultivation  and  enjoyment,  and 
partly  as  a  result  of  the  influence  of  Canaanite 
civilisation,  the  Hebrew  families  became 
accustomed  to  regard  their  possession  as 
absolute  property,  and  to  dispose  of  it  arbi- 
trarily. In  the  course  of  time  sales  and 
mortgages  undermined  the  old  economic 
equality,  and  class  divisions  were  introduced 
into  the  former  homogeneous  society. 

The  highest  god  of  the  Hebrews,  who  accom- 
panied them  into  Canaan,  was  JHWH  (Jahweh 
or  Jehovah),  a  god  of  the  desert,  of  the  scorch- 
ing heat,  of  the  consuming  fire  and  of  the 
thunderstorm,  a  war  hero  abroad  and  the 
protector  of  tribal  cohesion  at  home,  a  just 
legislator,  who  commanded  men  to  lead  a  strict, 
austere  life.  To  the  Jews  Jahweh  appeared  as 
the  symbol  of  the  physical  characteristics  of 
the  desert,  as  well  as  of  the  economic  and 


22      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

moral  conditions  of  life  of  hordes  of  tough 
nomads.  The  sacrifice  which  they  offered  to 
him  was  scanty,  some  meal  and  a  lamb.  But 
what  else  could  nomads  of  the  wilderness  offer  ? 
Frugal  and  temperate,  like  their  lives,  was  the 
god  whom  they  worshipped  and  feared.  In 
the  likeness  of  their  physiographic  environ- 
ment and  social  organisation  the  Hebrews 
created  their  god. 

The  Canaanite  god  Baal  was  of  a  different 
character;  like  the  Greek  Dionysos  or 
Bacchus,  he  was  the  religious  symbol  of  the 
germinating  powers  of  nature,  the  god  of  a 
country  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  and 
corn  and  wine.  He  made  men,  animals,  and 
plants  fruitful;  he  represented  the  mystery 
of  generation ;  his  consecrated  mountain  tops 
and  altars  became  noisy  public  places,  his 
sacrifices  became  luxurious  banquets,  his 
sacred  groves  became  sheltered  nooks  for  the 
sensual  embraces  of  the  sexes.  In  the  eyes  of 
the  prophets  the  service  of  Baal  was  vain 
fornication  and  whoredom.  The  civilisation 
of  Canaan  had  left  the  stage  of  tribal  organ- 
isation far  behind,  commerce  and  trade  were 
carried  on  in  towns,  and  private  property 
existed  in  all  things. 
The  Hebrews  (or  Israelites),  transplanted  to 


PALESTINE  23 

the  new  environment,  made  agriculture  the 
basis  of  their  society,  and  quickly  succumbed 
to  the  influence  of  Canaanite  civilisation. 
The  religious  life  of  the  nomads  proved 
inadequate  for  the  new  needs  of  agricultural 
life  :  Jahweh  could  not  fructify  the  field,  the 
vineyard  and  the  olive  tree — being  a  desert 
god,  he  lacked  this  quality — and  the  newly 
emerging  social  divisions  could  not  be  harmon- 
ised with  the  commands  of  Jahweh.  Life 
proved  to  be  stronger  than  an  idea.  Apostasy 
from  Jahweh  set  in,  either  by  investing  him 
with  qualities  which  belonged  to  Baal,  and 
modelling  the  service  of  Jahweh  on  the  cult  of 
Baal,  or  by  the  Hebrews  abandoning  their  old 
god  and  going  over  to  Baal.  From  the  ninth 
century  onwards  the  people  were  convulsed 
by  a  religious  crisis,  which  assumed  an  acute 
or  mild  form  according  to  circumstances  and 
the  outstanding  personalities.  Between  the 
supporters  of  Jahweh  and  those  of  Baal  a 
conflict  arose,  in  which  the  prophets,  clothed 
as  desert  beduins,  took  their  stand  at  the 
head  of  the  supporters  of  Jahweh,  first  Elijah 
and  Elisha,  in  whom  the  pure  traditional 
feeling  of  rehgion  predominated,  and  later 
such  powerful  preachers  as  Amos,  Isaiah  and 
Jeremiah,  who  led  the  class  struggle  of  the 


24      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

dispossessed,  plainly  demanded  social  justice, 
and  hailed  Jahweh  as  the  Judge  of  the  world. 
Then  the  crisis  was  sharpened  by  the  economic 
development  of  Israel,  and  the  class  division 
of  society  to  which  it  gave  rise.  The  con- 
ception of  Jahweh  acquired  a  meaning  which, 
as  we  shall  see,  carried  with  it  a  revolution 
in  the  religious  sphere. 

The  dissolution  and  transformation  of  the 
primitive  conditions  was  furthered  by  the 
numerous  wars,  which  were  undertaken  partly 
to  defend  and  partly  to  extend  the  country. 
The  wars  and  their  vicissitudes  aroused  (in 
the  tenth  century  B.C.)  among  the  agricultural 
tribes  the  desire  to  form  a  central  govern- 
ment, and  have  a  king,  who  could  undertake 
the  defence  of  their  borders  against  hostile 
attacks,  and  take  care  of  their  interests  as 
against  the  foreigner.  The  new  institution 
appeared  to  commend  itself.  If  previously 
the  tribes  of  Israel  had  to  wage  a  desperate 
struggle  for  their  existence,  now  they  soon 
succeeded  in  winning  a  position  which  com- 
pelled respect.  Neighbouring  nations  no 
longer  dared  to  attack  Israel,  and  the  peace 
seemed  to  be  a  durable  one  (2  Sam.  vii.  i ; 
I  Kings  V.  4). 

The  tribute  of  precious  metals  was  con- 


PALESTINE  25 

siderable;  agriculture  prospered,  and  as  the 
Israelites,  after  subduing  the  Canaanites, 
became  possessed  of  the  caravan  roads  and 
a  portion  of  the  sea-coast,  they  entered  into 
relations  with  the  seafaring  and  industrious 
Phoenicians.  The  monarchy  gave  a  powerful 
impulse  to  trade.  The  wars  with  Edom  in  the 
ninth  and  eighth  centuries  were  trade  wars; 
Elath  (Eziongeber),  the  Red  Sea  port,  must 
be  conquered,  so  that  gold  may  be  brought 
from  Ophir  and  colonial  goods  from  India. 
The  kings  Jehoshaphat,  Joram,  Amaziah  and 
Azariah  all  fought  near  the  bay  of  Akaba,  and 
when  the  Syrian  King  Rezin  captured  the  port 
of  Elath,  he  "drove  out  the  Jews  "  (2  Kings 
xvi.  6).  In  the  north  it  was  the  tribe  of 
Zebulun  "  which  dwelt  at  the  haven  of  the 
sea,  at  the  haven  of  ships,  whose  border  was 
Sidon  "  (Gen.  xlix.  13).  In  agriculture  and 
trade  Israel  attained  to  the  level  of  Canaanite 
civilisation,  and  consequently  surrendered  to 
the  religion  of  Baal,  and  danced  before  the 
golden  calf. 

2.  Class  Antagonisms  and  Prophets. 
The  days  when  Israel  sat  beneath  the  grape 
vine  and  fig  tree,  with  internal  concord  and 
freedom,  each  one  doing  what  seemed  to  him 


26      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES  IN  ANTIQUITY 

right,  vanished  never  to  return.  Economic 
inequahty  increased,  and  with  it  the  conflict 
between  the  opposing  classes :  the  poor  and 
the  rich,  the  rulers  and  the  ruled,  the  oppressed 
and  the  oppressors.  The  possessing  class  ad- 
hered, in  conformity  with  the  needs  of  their 
material  and  spiritual  life,  to  Baal,  the  god 
of  fertility,  of  enjoyment,  and  of  gain;  the 
disinherited  class  clung  to  Jahweh,  whom  they 
were  accustomed  to  regard  as  the  god  of  tribal 
solidarity,  of  common  ownership,  of  goodness 
and  mercy.  How  good  was  Israel  when  its 
tribes  were  encamped  in  the  desert !  How 
beautiful  were  its  tents  !  Israel  loved  Jahweh, 
and  Jahweh  loved  Israel.  To  the  disin- 
herited the  nomadic  time  and  the  old  tribal 
organisation  appeared  in  the  light  of  the  Golden 
Age.  How  gentle  and  loving  are  the  tones  in 
which  the  prophets,  otherwise  so  ruthless  and 
severe,  speak  of  the  youth  of  Israel ! 

As  we  have  seen,  the  conflict  between 
Jahweh  and  Baal  was  a  class  struggle  brought 
about  by  the  alteration  in  the  economic  con- 
ditions, worked  out  under  religious  forms. 

To  Jahweh  and  his  prophets  the  disin- 
herited turned  in  their  need.  "  Thy  servant, 
my  husband,  is  dead,"  complained  a  woman  to 
the  prophet  Elisha,  "  and  thou  knowest  that 


PALESTINE  27 

thy  servant  did  fear  Jahweh  :  and  the  creditor 
is  come  to  take  unto  him  my  two  sons  to  be 
bondmen  "  (2  Kings  iv.  i).  Semitic  capital  in 
Canaan  assumed  the  same  harshness  and  shape 
as  Arian  capital  in  Greece  and  Rome,  that  is, 
it  was  usurer's  and  merchant's  capital.  The 
anger  which  the  usurer  aroused  in  Israel  is 
shown  by  the  Hebrew  expression  for  usurer, 
"  neshech,"  which  means  literally  "  to  bite." 
The  increasing  use  of  money  and  the  develop- 
ment of  private  property  disintegrated  the  old 
economic  order  and  the  old  customs.  Opu- 
lence and  luxury  in  the  circles  of  the  wealthy, 
want,  oppression  and  enslavement  for  debt  in 
the  circles  of  the  dispossessed.  The  inevitable 
result  was  a  class  antagonism,  of  which  it  may 
be  said — so  far  as  historical  evidence  goes — 
that  it  did  not  lead  to  the  revolts  and  butchery 
which  shook  social  life  to  its  foundations  in 
Greece  and  Rome,  but  it  created  a  singular 
socio-religious  ferment,  of  which  the  prophets 
were  the  exponents. 

These  ethical  heroes,  who  threw  into  the 
struggle  for  social  justice  the  unquenchable 
ardour  of  their  fiery  souls,  were  gradually 
constrained  to  recognise  social  ethics  as  the 
most  important  element  of  religion.  When 
this  process  of  religious  transformation  had  in 


28      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

some  degree  been  completed,  Jahweh  ceased 
to  be  a  tribal  and  local  god,  and  became  a 
general  god  of  righteousness.  Thus  the 
prophets  elevated  the  primitive  social  idol  of 
the  nomadic  Hebrew  tribes  to  the  position  of 
universal  god  of  truth  and  humanity. 

They  gathered  strength  from  their  efforts, 
and  grew  from  national  leaders  into  universal 
seers,  thanks  also  to  the  political  condition 
and  geographical  position  of  Palestine,  which 
plunged  them  into  the  whirlpool  of  world 
politics.  For,  owing  to  its  position  and  physi- 
cal characteristics,  Palestine  formed  the  bridge- 
head between  Asia  Minor  and  Egypt,  and  was 
therefore  a  connecting  link  between  the  two 
rival  world  empires  of  that  time.  It  was 
exposed  to  invasions,  it  became  the  cockpit  of 
the  struggles  of  Asiatic  or  Egyptian  Empires, 
but  these  historic  vicissitudes  made  the  intel- 
lect of  its  Jewish  inhabitants  alert,  and  turned 
their  mind  to  problems  of  foreign  politics. 
The  leading  spirits  of  the  nation,  the  prophets, 
cast  their  eyes  over  the  great  empires  v/hich 
strove  with  each  other  for  mastery;  they 
weighed  the  worth  of  men  and  things,  of 
governments  and  countries,  in  the  scales  of 
social  righteousness ;  Assyrians,  Babylonians, 
Egyptians  and  Persians  became  instruments  in 


PALESTINE  29 

the  hand  of  Jahweh,  and  the  world  was 
penetrated  by  His  will  and  His  plan.  The 
tempest  raged  through  the  wide  domains  of 
history,  bringing  down  the  pride  of  empires, 
humiliating  the  vain  and  shattering  the 
haughty.  In  the  collapse  of  all  earthly  power, 
a  moral  world  order  manifested  itself,  majestic 
and  unassailable,  the  centre  of  which  Israel 
occupied.  The  prophets  became  the  fore- 
tellers of  the  disasters  which  would  overtake 
Israel  and  Judah,  and  of  their  final  purifica- 
tion, as  also  of  the  redemption  of  mankind — 
the  redemption  from  wars  and  strife,  from 
struggles  at  home  and  abroad,  by  the  triumph 
of  the  spirit,  by  the  dominion  of  justice  and 
right,  which  Jahweh,  through  the  medium  of 
the  Jews,  would  spread  over  the  whole  of 
mankind.  Elemental  power  was  the  life  force 
of  these  men,  it  must  have  been  a  physically 
and  intellectually  strong  race  which  could 
produce  such  powerful  personalities.  They 
began  with  purely  local  struggles  for  the 
oppressed,  and  closed  their  imperishable 
careers  with  a  moral  world  mission. 

3.  Social  Righteousness. 

Amos,  the  shepherd  of  Tekoa,  lifted  up  his 
voice  against  the  whole  of  the  inhabitants  of 


30      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

Syria  and  Palestine,  and  announced  the  woe 
that  would  befall  them  on  account  of  their 
sins.  "  Publish  in  the  palaces  at  Ashdod, 
and  in  the  palaces  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and 
say.  Assemble  yourselves  upon  the  mountains 
of  Samaria,  and  behold  what  great  tumults  are 
in  the  midst  thereof.  For  they  know  not  to 
do  right,  who  store  up  violence  and  robbery  " 
(iii.  9,  10).  They  believed  they  could  fulfil 
the  will  of  Jahweh  by  sacrifices  and  prayers. 
But  Jahweh  said  :  "I  hate,  I  despise  your 
feast  days,  and  I  will  take  no  delight  in  your 
solemn  assemblies.  Take  thou  away  from 
me  the  noise  of  thy  songs ;  for  I  will  not  hear 
the  melody  of  thy  viols.  But  let  judgment 
roll  down  as  waters,  and  righteousness  as  a 
mighty  stream.  Did  ye  bring  unto  me  sacri- 
fices and  offerings  in  the  wilderness  forty 
years,  O  house  of  Israel?  "  (v.  21-25).  Jahweh 
demanded  not  sacrifices  and  prayers,  but 
justice  and  righteousness.  The  judges  are  not 
to  decide  in  favour  of  the  rich ;  the  privileged 
and  possessing  classes  are  not  to  oppress  the 
poor  and  needy;  the  corn-dealers  must  cease 
deceiving  the  hungry.  Amos  censured  the 
princes  and  the  mighty  ones,  the  wealthy  and 
the  upstarts,  who  lived  in  stone  palaces,  and 
laid  upon  beds  of  ivory  and  stretched  them- 


PALESTINE  81 

selves  upon  their  couches,  and  ate  the  lambs 
out  of  the  flock  and  the  calves  out  of  the  midst 
of  the  stall,  and  sang  idle  songs  to  the  sound 
of  the  viol,  and  drank  wine  out  of  bowls, 
and  anointed  themselves  with  ointment,  but 
grieved  not  for  the  ill  condition  of  the  people. 
The  chastisement  would  not  be  withheld. 
"  Jeroboam  shall  die  by  the  sword,  and  Israel 
shall  surely  be  led  away  captive  out  of  their 
own  land  "  (vii.  ii).  Therefore,  "  Seek  good 
and  not  evil,  that  ye  may  live.  Hate  the  evil 
and  love  the  good,  and  establish  judgment  in 
the  gate;  it  may  be  that  the  Lord  of  Hosts 
will  be  gracious  to  the  remnant  of  Joseph  " 

(v.  14,  15). 

Hosea  reminded  the  children  of  Israel  that 
Jahweh  had  cause  to  be  dissatisfied  with  them, 
**  because  there  is  no  truth  nor  mercy  nor 
knowledge  of  God  in  the  land.  There  is 
nought  but  swearing  and  lying,  and  killing 
and  stealing  and  committing  adultery;  they 
break  out  and  blood  touches  blood  "  (iv.  i,  2) 
Israel  has  become  proud  of  its  riches.  "  The 
merchant  has  the  balances  of  deceit  in  his 
hand;  he  loveth  to  oppress.  And  Ephraim 
said,  I  am  become  rich,  I  have  found  me 
wealth  "  (ii.  8,  9).  In  matters  of  external 
policy   too   Israel  forsook   Jahweh.     Like   a 


32      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN   ANTIQUITY 

straying  dove,  Israel  ran  here  and  there,  form- 
ing alternate  alliances  with  Egypt  and  Assyria, 
to  secure  protection  against  hostile  invasions. 
Therefore,  the  country  suffers,  and  the  people 
are  ruined.  How  different  was  Israel  when 
young,  and  living  in  the  desert  (xi.  i,  2).  But 
now  "  Ye  have  plowed  wickedness,  ye  have 
reaped  iniquity,  ye  have  eaten  the  fruit  of 
lies  "  (x.  13).  There  is  no  escape  from  the 
punishment.  Therefore,  "  Sow  to  yourselves 
in  righteousness,  reap  in  mercy,  break  up 
your  fallow  ground  (x.  12)  .  .  .  keep  mercy 
and  judgment,  and  wait  on  thy  God  con- 
tinually." 

Then  will  Jahweh  "  heal  their  backsliding, 
and  love  them,"  and  make  a  covenant  with 
them,  and  will  break  the  bow  and  the  sword 
and  the  battle  out  of  the  land,  for  the  covenant 
will  rest  on  righteousness  and  judgment,  on 
lovingkindness  and  on  mercy  "  (ii.  18,  19). 

Micah's  righteous  anger  was  directed  against 
the  rich  and  the  mighty  of  the  country  : 
"  Hear  this,  I  pray  you,  ye  heads  of  the  house 
of  Jacob,  and  rulers  of  the  house  of  Israel, 
that  abhor  judgment  and  pervert  all  equity. 
They  build  up  Zion  with  blood  and  Jerusalem 
with  iniquity.  The  heads  thereof  judge  for 
reward,  and  the  priests  thereof  teach  for  hire, 


PALESTINE  33 

and  the  prophets  thereof  divine  for  money. 
.  .  .  Therefore  shall  Zion  for  your  sake  be 
plowed  as  a  field,  and  Jerusalem  shall  become 
heaps,  and  the  mountain  of  the  Lord's  house 
as  the  high  places  of  a  forest  "  (iii.  9-12). 
The  people  are  divided  by  mistrust,  dissension 
and  mutual  strife.  Jahweh  is  not  to  be 
placated  by  sacrifices.  "  Will  the  Lord  be 
pleased  with  thousands  of  rams,  or  with  ten 
thousands  of  rivers  of  oil?  He  hath  shewed 
thee,  O  man,  what  is  good ;  and  what  doth  the 
Lord  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to 
love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God?  "  (vi.  7-8). 

The  eloquent  Isaiah,  of  whom  Micah  was 
the  potent  echo,  subjected  the  whole  social  life 
of  Palestine  to  a  ruthless  examination,  and 
found  nothing  good  in  it.  Justice  and  right- 
eousness had  disappeared,  and  pure  morals 
had  been  supplanted  by  luxury,  corrupting 
fashions,  unbridled  seeking  for  enjoyment, 
and  the  pursuit  of  wealth  and  glory.  The 
poor,  the  widow  and  the  orphan  were  op- 
pressed and  exploited,  the  small  peasant  was 
expropriated,  and  large  estates  were  formed  : 
"  Woe  unto  them  that  join  house  to  house, 
that  lay  field  to  field,  till  there  be  no  room, 
and  ye  be  made  to  dwell  alone  in  the  midst  of 


84      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES  IN  ANTIQUITY 

the    land"   (v.  8).      The    prophet  cried  out 
against  the  legal  attempts  to  sanction  this  state 
of   things :     "  Woe   unto   them   that   decree 
unrighteous  decrees,  and  to  the  writers  that 
write  perverseness  :    to  turn  aside  the  needy 
from  judgment,  and  to  take  away  the  right 
of  the  poor  of  my  people,  that  widows  may 
be  their  spoil,  and  that  they  may  make  the 
fatherless   their   prey "    (x.    1-2).     Therefore 
has  Jahweh  turned  his  countenance  from  the 
prayers  and  sacrifices  :    "  Bring  no  more  vain 
oblations;    incense  is  an   abomination  unto 
me.     Your  new  moons  and  your  appointed 
feasts  my  soul  hateth,  And  when  ye  spread 
forth  your  hands,  I  will  hide  my  eyes  from 
you ;  yea,  when  ye  make  many  prayers,  I  will 
not   hear  :    your  hands   are   full  of  blood  " 
(i.  13-15).     The  judgment  of  Jahweh  will  fall 
upon  all  that  is  lofty  and  proud,  and  they 
will  be  brought  low;  and  upon  all  the  cedars 
of    Lebanon,    and    upon    all    the    oaks    of 
Bashan,  and  upon  all  the  ships  of  Tarshish, 
and  upon   all  pleasant  imagery   (ii.    11-16). 
Jahweh  "  will  smite  with  a  scab  the  crown  of 
the  head  of  the  daughters  of  Zion,  and  he  will 
take  away  the  bravery  of  their  anklets,  and 
their  cauls,  and  their  crescents,  their  pendants 
and  their   bracelets,  and  their  mufflers,  the 


PALESTINE  35 

head  tires  and  the  ankle  chains,  the  sashes 
and  the  perfume  boxes,  the  amulets,  the  rings 
and  the  nose  jewels,  the  festival  robes  and  the 
mantles.  .  .  .  Thy  men  shall  fall  by  the  sword 
and  thy  mighty  in  the  war  "  (iii.  17-24).  And 
Israel  will  be  led  into  captivity,  its  honourable 
men  will  be  famished,  and  the  multitude 
parched  with  thirst,  and  the  mighty  men  shall 
be  humbled  (v.  13-15).  Then  "  the  meek  also 
shall  increase  their  joy  in  the  Lord,  and  the 
poor  among  men  shall  rejoice  in  the  holy  one 
of  Israel,  for  the  terrible  one  is  brought  to 
nought  and  the  scorner  is  consumed"  (xxix. 
ig,  20).  But  Israel  may  still  be  saved  if  it 
turns  back  to  Jahweh,  and  obeys  his  com- 
mands :  "  Wash  you,  make  you  clean ;  put 
away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from  before  mine 
eyes;  cease  to  do  evil;  learn  to  do  well; 
seek  judgment,  relieve  the  oppressed,  judge 
the  fatherless,  plead  for  the  widow  "  (i.  16). 

Jeremiah  (circa  600  B.C.),  as  man  and 
thinker  probably  the  greatest  among  the 
prophets,  in  the  name  of  Jahweh,  reminded 
the  house  of  Jacob  and  the  tribes  of  Israel 
of  the  wilderness  period  :  "I  remember  thee, 
the  kindness  of  thy  youth,  the  love  of  thine 
espousals,  how  thou  wentest  after  me  in  the 
wilderness   in   a   land   that   was   not    sown. 


36      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

Israel  was  holiness  unto  the  Lord.  And  I 
brought  you  into  a  plentiful  land,  to  eat  the 
fruit  thereof  and  the  goodness  thereof.  But 
when  ye  entered,  ye  defiled  my  land,  and  made 
mine  heritage  an  abomination  "  (ii.  2-7).  The 
prophet  predicted  in  passionate  but  inexor- 
able words  the  captivity  of  Judah  and  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem.  This  was  the 
burden  of  his  visions,  and  he  sought  to  inter- 
cede with  Jahweh  on  Judah's  behalf;  man 
is  not  free  in  his  acts,  he  has  no  freedom  of 
will :  "  O  Lord,  I  know  that  the  way  of  man 
is  not  in  himself :  it  is  not  in  man  that  walketh 
to  direct  his  steps  "  (x.  23).  But  social  justice 
is  the  breath  of  the  people's  life,  and  the  moral 
system  of  the  world  must  be  instituted.  For 
their  neglect  of  Jahweh  the  Jews  must  suffer, 
and  they  must  become  fit  for  their  historic 
mission. 

Zephaniah,  an  older  contemporary  of  Jere- 
miah, described  the  entire  struggle  in  a  few 
chapters,  and  announced  the  approach  of 
Jahweh's  day — the  impending  punishment  of 
Judah.  "  There  shall  be  the  noise  of  a  cry 
from  the  Fish  gate  (in  Jerusalem)  and  an 
howling  from  the  second  quarter,  and  a  great 
crashing  from  the  hills.  Howl,  ye  inhabitants 
of  Maktesh,  for  all  the  merchant  people  are 


PALESTINE  87 

cut  down;  all  they  that  bear  silver  are  cut 
off.  .  .  .  Neither  their  silver  nor  their  gold 
shall  be  able  to  deliver  them  in  the  day  of  the 
Lord's  wrath,  but  the  whole  land  shall  be 
devoured  by  the  fire  of  his  jealousy  "  (i,  lo, 
II,  i8). 

With  less  prophetic  frenzy,  but  with  greater 
learning  and  more  extensive  knowledge, 
Ezekiel  handled  the  problem  at  the  time  of  the 
Babylonian  exile  (about  560  B.C.).  "Woe 
unto  the  shepherds  of  Israel  that  do  feed  them- 
selves. Should  not  the  shepherds  feed  the 
flocks  ?  Ye  eat  the  fat,  and  ye  clothe  you  with 
the  wool.  Ye  kill  the  fatlings,  but  ye  feed 
not  the  sheep.  The  diseased  have  ye  not 
strengthened,  neither  have  ye  healed  that 
which  was  sick,  neither  have  ye  bound  up  that 
which  was  broken,  neither  have  ye  brought 
again  that  which  was  driven  away,  neither 
have  ye  sought  that  which  was  lost,  but  with 
force  and  with  rigour  have  ye  ruled  over  them. 
.  .  .  O  my  flock,  thus  saith  the  Lord,  I  judge 
between  the  rams  and  the  he-goats,  between 
the  fat  cattle  and  the  lean  cattle.  Because 
ye  thrust  with  side  and  with  shoulder,  and 
pushed  all  the  diseased  with  your  horns,  till 
ye  have  scattered  them  away,  therefore  will 
I  save  my  flock,  and  they  shaU  be  no  more  a 


38      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

prey  "  (xxxiv.  2-22).  Each  man  is  responsible 
for  his  actions,  and  to  do  evil  or  good  is  within 
the  choice  of  everyone.  Therefore,  Israel 
must  be  converted,  and  shall  fulfil  the  com- 
mandments of  Jahweh. 

Interwoven  with  the  censorious  preaching 
and  the  foretelling  of  disaster  we  find  among 
all  the  prophets  a  message  of  salvation  to 
Israel,  and  a  firmly  rooted  belief  in  the  final 
redemption  of  mankind.  The  prophecies 
reach  their  highest  point  with  the  Second  Book 
of  Isaiah  (from  chapter  xl.  to  the  end),  the 
period  being  about  the  year  540  B.C.  The 
Jews  are  to  be  the  evangels  of  social  righteous- 
ness. "  The  spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is  upon 
me,  because  the  Lord  hath  anointed  me  to 
preach  good  tidings  unto  the  meek;  he  hath 
sent  me  to  bind  up  the  broken-hearted,  to  pro- 
claim liberty  to  the  captives,  and  the  opening 
of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound  "  (Ixi.  i). 
If  it  will  take  this  mission  on  itself,  this  people 
will  become  the  centre  of  mankind.  Long 
despised  and  held  to  be  unworthy,  it  will 
become  the  jewel  of  the  world.  "  Arise, 
shine,  for  thy  light  is  come,  and  the  glory  of 
the  Lord  is  risen  upon  thee.  For  behold, 
darkness  shall  cover  the  earth,  and  gross 
darkness  the  peoples,  but  the  Lord  shall  arise 


PALESTINE  39 

upon  thee,  and  his  glory  shall  be  seen  upon 
thee.  And  the  Gentiles  shall  come  to  thy 
light,  and  kings  to  the  brightness  of  thy 
rising.  ...  I  will  also  make  thy  officers 
peace,  and  thine  exactors  righteousness.  .  .  . 
Thy  people  also  shall  be  all  righteous;  they 
shall  inherit  the  land  for  ever  "  (Ix.  1-21). 

His  contemporary,  Ezekiel,  drew  a  picture 
of  a  Jewish  kingdom  of  God,  in  which  equality 
of  men  and  of  possessions  was  made  the  chief 
condition.  "  Ye  shall  divide  the  land  for 
inheritance,  one  as  well  as  another.  .  .  .  And 
it  shall  come  to  pass  that  ye  shall  divide  it 
by  lot  for  an  inheritance  unto  you,  and  to  the 
aliens  that  sojourn  among  you;  they  shall  be 
unto  you  as  the  homeborn  among  the  children 
of  Israel;  they  shall  have  inheritance  among 
you  with  the  tribes  of  Israel  "  {xlvii.  14-22). 

With  the  ideal  of  justice  and  righteousness 
that  of  everlasting  peace  was  closely  bound 
up  :  "  And  the  wolf  shall  dwell  with  the  lamb, 
and  the  leopard  shall  lie  down  with  the  kid ; 
and  the  calf  and  the  young  lion  and  the 
fatling  together,  and  a  little  child  shall  lead 
them.  .  .  .  They  shall  beat  their  swords  into 
plowshares,  and  their  spears  into  pruning- 
hooks  :  nation  shall  not  lift  up  sword  against 
nation,    neither    shall    they   learn    war    any 


40      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

more  "  (Isaiah  ii.  4-1 1).  Zechariah  foresees 
the  time  when  Jehovah  "  will  cut  off  the 
chariot  from  Ephraim  and  the  horse  from 
Israel,  and  the  battle  bow  shall  be  cut  off; 
and  he  shall  speak  peace  unto  the  nations; 
and  his  dominion  shall  be  from  sea  to  sea, 
even  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  .  .  .  Not  by 
might,  nor  by  power,  but  by  the  spirit  shaU 
the  kingdom  of  God  be  established  "  (iv.  6). 

And  one  of  the  last  prophets,  Malachi,  asks 
the  human  question  :  "  Have  we  not  all  one 
father  ?  hath  not  one  God  created  us  ?  Why 
do  we  deal  treacherously,  every  man  against 
his  brother?  "  (ii.  10). 

4.  Efforts  at  Reform. 

In  the  last  quarter  of  the  seventh  century 
(621  B.C.)  an  attempt  was  made  to  enact 
reform  laws  which  would  mitigate  to  some 
extent  the  evils.  These  reform  laws  are  laid 
down  in  Deuteronomy  and  Leviticus  :  they 
comprise  the  essentials  of  the  two  chief 
demands  of  the  dispossessed  throughout 
antiquity  (even  those  of  Hellas  and  Rome)  : 
relief  of  debtors  and  redistribution  of  the  land. 
They  proclaimed  that  the  land  belonged  to 
Jahweh,  in  other  words,  that  the  land  is  the 


PALESTINE  41 

common  possession  of  the  whole  people. 
"  And  the  land  shall  not  be  sold  for  ever."  A 
return  to  freedom  and  equality  is  to  take  place 
every  fifty  years.  "  And  ye  shall  hallow  the 
fiftieth  year,  and  it  shall  be  a  jubilee  unto  you, 
and  ye  shall  return  every  man  unto  his 
possession,  and  ye  shall  return  every  man  unto 
his  family."  Meanwhile  the  lot  of  the  debtor 
is  to  be  alleviated  :  "If  thy  brother  be  waxen 
poor  with  thee,  and  sell  himself  unto  thee, 
thou  shalt  not  make  him  to  serve  as  a  bond- 
servant, but  as  a  hired  servant  and  as  a 
sojourner  he  shall  serve  with  thee  unto  the 
year  of  jubilee.  And  then  shall  he  depart 
from  thee,  both  he  and  his  children  with  him, 
and  shall  return  unto  his  own  family,  and  unto 
the  possession  of  his  brothers  "  (Lev.  xxv.). 
A  year  of  release  is  to  take  place  every  seven 
years,  in  which  debts  will  be  cancelled. 
"  Every  creditor  shall  release  that  which  he 
hath  lent  unto  his  neighbour;  he  shall  not 
exact  it  of  his  neighbour,  because  the  Lord's 
release  hath  been  proclaimed.  Howbeit,  there 
shall  be  no  poor  among  you.  ...  If  there  be 
among  you  a  poor  man  of  one  of  the  brethren, 
thou  shalt  not  harden  thy  heart,  nor  shut  thy 
hand  from  thy  poor  brother.  Beware  there 
be  not  a  base  thought  in  thine  heart,  saying. 


42      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

The  year  of  release  is  at  hand  (and  my  money 
will  be  lost).  Thou  shalt  surely  open  thy 
hand  unto  thy  brother,  to  thy  needy,  and  to 
thy  poor  in  the  land.  And  if  thy  brother,  an 
Hebrew  man  or  an  Hebrew  woman,  be  sold 
unto  thee,  then  in  the  seventh  year  thou  shalt 
let  them  go  free  from  thee"  (Deut.  xv.). 
Mortgage  rights  are  to  be  restricted.  "  When 
thou  dost  lend  thy  neighbour  any  manner  of 
loan,  thou  shalt  not  go  into  his  house  to  fetch 
his  pledge.  Thou  shalt  stand  without,  and 
the  man  to  whom  thou  dost  lend  shall  bring 
out  the  pledge  unto  thee.  And  if  he  be  a  poor 
man,  thou  shalt  surely  restore  to  him  the 
pledge  when  the  sun  goeth  down,  that  he 
may  sleep  in  his  own  raiment  "  (Deut.  xxiv. 
10-13).  Widows  and  orphans  especially  may 
not  be  distrained  upon.  The  wages  of  labour 
are  to  be  paid  daily  (xxiv.  14-15).  Indicative 
of  the  still  strong  influence  of  the  traditions  of 
common  property  is  the  permission  to  pluck 
the  ears  of  the  neighbour's  corn  (xxiii.  25)  as 
well  as  the  injunctions  as  to  forgotten  sheaves, 
the  gleanings,  and  the  leavings  behind  of  a 
portion  of  the  harvest  for  the  dispossessed. 
There  is,  however,  evidence  to  the  effect  that 
the  social  reform  laws  were  not  entirely 
effective. 


PALESTINE  43 

The  injunction  regarding  jubilee  year  was 
never  put  into  force,  and  the  law  of  the  year 
of  release  was  abolished  in  the  post-exilian 
epoch  during  the  commercial  prosperity.  The 
prophet  Jeremiah  lamented  the  apathy  to- 
wards this  law,  and  in  Nehemiah  we  again 
hear  the  people  complaining  of  the  usury 
practised  by  their  own  countrymen,  of  debts, 
bondage  and  the  mortgaging  of  fields  and  vine- 
3^ards  (about  500  B.C.). 

The  Talmud,  which  in  its  juridical  section  is 
a  codification  of  the  laws  which  had  grown  up 
on  the  basis  of  private  property  and  com- 
mercial intercourse,  has  transmitted  to  us  the 
legal  formula  in  which  the  repeal  of  the  law  of 
release  was  couched.  The  reason  of  this  repeal 
was  of  a  purely  economic  nature.  The  Tal- 
mud states  in  this  connection  :  "If  the  fear 
of  release  is  to  be  maintained  the  door  would 
have  to  be  closed  to  the  borrowers."  It  goes 
on  to  say  that  as  the  law  relating  to  the  year 
of  release  also  enjoins  that  "  no  evil  thoughts 
should  be  allowed  to  arise  in  the  heart,  so 
that  help  would  be  refused  on  account  of  the 
proximity  of  the  year  of  release,"  and  that 
as  such  thoughts  could  not  be  avoided,  the 
Rabbis  therefore  decided  to  declare  the  whole 
law  null    and  void.      In    other  words,   the 


44      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

economic  development  proved  to  be  stronger 
than  the  social  legislation. 

Of   the   entire   social  legislation   there   re- 
mained only  an  extensive  Poor  Law  code. 

The  communal  traditions,  however,  still 
persisted  among  the  poorer  classes.  Even  in 
the  time  of  Jesus  we  find  the  following  remark- 
able indications  as  to  the  property  divisions 
which  prevailed  among  the  Jews  (Pirke  Ahoth, 
V.  13)  :  "  There  are  four  classes  among  men  : 
one  says,  What  is  mine  is  mine,  and  what  is 
thine  is  thine;  that  is  a  sort  of  middle  class 
(the  bourgeoisie),  or,  as  many  say,  Sodom; — 
another  says,  What  is  mine  is  thine,  and  what 
is  thine  is  mine,  common  people; — another 
class  says.  What  is  mine  is  thine,  and  what  is 
thine  is  also  thine — that  is  the  pious  class ; — 
again,  another  says,  What  is  mine  is  mine, 
and  what  is  thine  is  also  mine — that  is  the 
class  of  evildooers."  This  information  regard- 
ing the  four  categories  of  citizens  which 
existed  at  that  time  in  Palestine,  is  extremely 
instructive.  We  perceive  the  bourgeoisie  at 
the  head,  with  their  strict  ideas  of  property ; 
and  it  is  observed  mordantly  that  these  are  a 
Sodomite  class.  Then  come  the  Communists, 
who  recognise  neither  mine  nor  thine;  they 
are  simply  described  as  the  common  people, 


PALESTINE  45 

as  the  'am  ha-arez.  Further,  there  are  the 
pious,  who  renounce  all  property,  and  thus 
embrace  apostolic  poverty,  the  paupertas 
evangelica,  which  attained  such  great  signifi- 
cance in  primitive  Christianity  and  in  the 
twelfth,  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries. 
The  fourth  category  requires  no  explanation  : 
they  are  the  exploiters,  thieves  and  murderers. 

5.  The  Jewish  Communists — the  Essenes. 

It  was  not  merely  the  common  people  who 
had  no  sense  of  private  property.  Several 
thousands  of  the  noblest  men  among  the  Jews 
of  Palestine  made  the  attempt  to  introduce 
Communism  into  practical  life. 

These  were  the  Essenes,  who  first  appeared 
in  the  second  century  B.C.  and  passed  as  a 
special  sect.  They  were  mentioned  with  high 
esteem  and  admiration  by  all  contemporary 
writers  who  made  any  reference  to  them.  The 
Jewish  intellectuals,  like  Philo  and  Josephus, 
who  were  familiar  with  Greek  philosophy  and 
generally  with  the  intellectual  life  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  spoke  of  the  communal 
principle  as  the  quintessence  of  virtue. 
Josephus  regarded  Cain,  the  fratricide,  as  the 
founder  of  private  property  (Jewish  Antiqui- 
ties, chap.  ii).     It  is  a  notable  fact  that  Cain 


46      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

was  also  the  first  to  establish  a  city-state. 
With  great  satisfaction,  Philo  narrates : 
"  There  lived  in  Palestine  4000  virtuous  men, 
called  Essenes ;  they  dwelt  in  the  villages  and 
avoided  the  towns  on  account  of  the  licenti- 
ousness which  was  customary  among  the 
inhabitants.  Many  of  them  carried  on  agricul- 
ture, others  pursued  peaceful  avocations,  and 
in  this  wise  employed  themselves  and  their 
neighbours.  They  accumulated  neither  silver 
nor  gold,  nor  did  they  acquire  lands  in  order 
to  procure  large  incomes  for  themselves ;  but 
they  toiled  merely  to  secure  the  necessary 
means  for  supporting  life.  Thus  they  are 
practically  the  only  men  who  possess  no 
property,  not  because  of  the  mischance  of 
fortune,  but  because  they  do  not  strive  after 
riches,  and  yet  they  are,  in  truth,  the  richest 
of  all,  as  they  count  as  riches  the  absence  of 
needs  and  contentment.  You  will  not  find 
among  them  artificers  of  arrows,  javelins, 
swords,  helmets,  breastplates  and  shields,  nor 
any  who  are  engaged  in  the  construction  of 
implements  of  war,  or  generally  anything 
which  pertains  to  war.  Commerce,  liquor 
manufacturing,  and  seafaring  have  never 
entered  their  heads,  for  they  desire  to  avoid 
all  things  that  give  rise  to  covetousness.    There 


PALESTINE  47 

are  also  no  slaves  among  them.  All  are  free 
and  work  for  each  other.  They  despise  rulers 
and  governors  not  only  because  the  latter  are 
unjust  in  violating  equality,  but  also  because 
they  are  ungodly  in  abolishing  an  institution 
of  nature,  which,  like  a  mother,  creates  and 
nourishes  all  as  true  and  loving  brothers,  a 
relationship  which  is  destroyed  by  triumphant 
cunning  and  avarice,  which  have  put  aliena- 
tion in  place  of  trustfulness  and  hatred  in 
place  of  love.  The  Essenes  are  taught  the 
principles  of  godliness,  holiness  and  right- 
eousness in  the  government  of  the  house  and 
the  community,  in  the  knowledge  of  what  is 
good  and  what  is  evil,  and  they  accept  as  their 
three  moral  conceptions  or  principles,  love  of 
God,  of  virtue  and  of  mankind.  The  mani- 
festations of  love  of  mankind  are  benevo- 
lence, equity  and  community  in  goods,  which 
cannot  be  praised  too  highly.  We  may  add 
something  about  the  latter.  First  of  all,  none 
has  a  house  which  does  not  belong  to  all.  In 
addition  to  the  fact  that  they  dwell  together 
socially,  every  house  is  open  to  comrades  who 
come  from  a  distance.  Also  the  storehouse 
and  the  provisions  contained  therein  belong  to 
all,  as  well  as  the  articles  of  clothing;  like- 
wise the  eatables  are  available  to  those  who 


48      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

do  not  observe  the  common  meal-times.  And 
generally  the  condition  of  dwelling,  eating  and 
living  together  socially  has,  among  no  other 
race,  been  carried  to  such  a  high  degree  of 
perfection  as  among  these  men.  For  they  do 
not  keep  for  themselves  what  they  have  earned 
during  the  day,  but  put  it  together  and  offer 
it  for  general  consumption.  The  sick  and 
aged  are  treated  with  the  greatest  care  and 
gentleness." 

Philo  states  further  that  the  Essenes  were 
everywhere  held  in  the  greatest  esteem. 
"  Even  the  most  cruel  rulers  and  proconsuls 
were  unable  to  do  them  harm.  On  the  con- 
trary, they  quailed  before  the  unsullied  virtue 
of  these  men,  met  them  in  a  friendly  spirit, 
as  such  as  had  the  right  to  make  their  own 
laws  and  were  free  by  nature;  they  com- 
mended their  meals  in  common  and  their  most 
praiseworthy  institution  of  holding  goods  in 
common,  which  was  the  most  striking  proof 
of  a  full  and  happy  life." 

Josephus,  too,  was  pleased  to  refer  to  the 
Essenes  and  wrote  :  "  They  despise  wealth, 
and  the  common  life  they  practise  is  marvel- 
lous. Thus,  it  is  impossible  to  find  among 
them  any  one  who  wishes  to  distinguish  him- 
self by  property.     For  it  is  a  law  that  those 


PALESTINE  49 

who  are  admitted  into  this  sect  transfer  their 
property  to  the  order.  Consequently  there  is 
neither  privation  and  poverty,  nor  super- 
fluity and  luxury." 

In  regard  to  marriage,  it  is  stated  by  some 
that  the  Essenes  preferred  celibacy,  while 
others  assert  they  married.  It  would  appear 
that  in  this  respect  they  thought  as  the 
Apostle  Paul,  who  gave  the  preference  to 
celibacy,  but  did  not  forbid  marriage.  With 
the  quotations  we  have  given  from  Pirke 
Aboth  and  the  institutions  of  the  Essenes,  we 
have  already  penetrated  into  the  intellectual 
life  of  primitive  Christianity. 

The  anti-political  tendency  among  the 
Essenes  is  noteworthy;  they  turned  aside 
from  the  State,  and  held  social  ethics  and 
social  economy  to  be  the  essential  things. 
This  feature  was  characteristic  throughout 
the  entire  history  of  the  Israelites  in  Pales- 
tine. In  contrast  to  the  Greeks,  who  were 
engaged  so  vigorously  with  constitutional 
questions  and  investigated  the  most  various 
forms  of  government,  the  Jews  passed  through 
only  a  solitary  political  crisis,  about  the  year 
1000  B.C.,  when  they  progressed  from  tribal 
organisation  to  State  organisation  and  founded 
a  kingship.     Gradually  there  developed  among 


50      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

the  Jews  a  strong  antipathy  to  all  State  organ- 
isation involving  compulsion.  This  antipathy 
found  its  first  expression  in  a  condemnation  of 
the  monarchy,  in  i  Samuel  viii.,  which  is 
of  later  origin.  The  conduct  of  the  great 
imperial  Powers  which  dominated  Palestine — 
the  whole  history  of  the  great  ancient  empires 
whose  waves  overflowed  into  Palestine — was, 
in  fact,  not  calculated  to  make  State  politicians 
of  a  people  which  so  earnestly  sought  after 
righteousness.  A  strong  sidelight  on  the  atti- 
tude of  the  Jews  towards  the  State  is  thrown 
by  the  following  passage  which  is  preserved  in 
the  Talmud  :  "No  person  here  below  (on 
earth)  becomes  a  State  official,  but  is  con- 
demned above  (in  heaven)  as  an  evil-doer." 
God  is  the  sole  ruler,  and  his  commandments 
are  the  principles  and  guides  of  mankind. 


CHAPTER   II 

GREECE 

I.  Economic  and  Social  Development. 

The  Dorian,  Ionian  and  ^olian  tribes, 
which  came  originally  from  the  North,  and 
which  made  themselves  masters  of  the  south  of 
the  Balkan  peninsula,  and  became  celebrated 
in  history  as  Hellenes  or  Greeks,  were  organ- 
ised, on  the  basis  of  blood  relationships,  into 
gentes,  phratries  and  phylens. 

Of  these  tribes,  the  Dorian  conquerors  of 
Laconia  (Sparta)  and  the  Ionian  conquerors 
of  Attica  (Athenians)  specially  distinguished 
themselves  by  military  deeds,  by  social  insti- 
tutions, or  by  philosophical,  artistic  and 
political  achievements.  In  the  annals  of 
Socialism  both  peoples  have  played  a  con- 
spicuous part. 

The  Spartans,  and  the  Dorians  generally, 
practised  communism,  whilst  the  lonians 
were  the  theorists  and  provided  them  with 
a  philosophical  basis. 

51 


52      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN   ANTIQUITY 

Originally,  the  Hellenes  raised  cattle  and 
tilled  the  land,  and  knew  neither  private 
property  nor  towns.  We  do  not  know  how 
long  this  condition  may  have  lasted,  nor  in 
what  manner  it  came  to  an  end.  In  the  last 
half  of  the  ninth  century,  when  the  oldest 
Hellenic  poetry — the  Iliad  and  the  Odyssey 
— was  composed,  a  division  of  classes  and  a 
disintegration  of  society  had  already  set  in. 
Hellas  had  entered  upon  the  period  of  its 
middle  ages.  As  Plato  relates  in  his  book 
On  Laws  (Book  III.  chap.  4),  in  Hellas,  at 
the  time  of  the  Trojan  War,  described  by 
Homer  in  the  above-mentioned  poems,  towns 
were  already  in  existence,  and  rebellions  broke 
out  in  them  against  the  old  archaic  ruling 
caste;  banishments,  murders  and  executions 
were  often  occurring. 

The  primitive  conditions  of  Hellas  were 
apparently  undermined  by  war,  trading  and 
sea-faring.  War  was  reckoned  a  profession 
in  Hellas,  like  hunting  and  fishing.  It  was 
held  in  high  estimation;  even  the  greatest 
Greek  philosophers,  Plato  and  Aristotle,  were 
unable  to  conceive  of  eternal  peace.  The 
quest  of  the  Golden  Fleece,  and  the  protracted 
struggles  waged  against  Troy  and  to  secure 
access  to  the  Black  Sea  point  to  the  con- 


GREECE  53 

elusion  that  the  Hellenes  found  themselves 
at  that  time  in  the  conditions  proper  to  the 
middle  ages. 

Colonisation  had  made  a  start,  and  with  it 
trade  and  sea-faring.  The  Dorians  founded 
colonies  in  Crete,  Rhodes  and  Kos,  in  addition 
to  Knidos  and  Halikarnossos  (to  the  south 
of  the  western  coast  of  Asia  Minor).  Be- 
tween 750  and  600  B.C.  the  Hellenes  pushed 
forward  their  colonial  settlements;  they 
became  the  successors  of  the  Phenicians. 
Ionian  settlements  appeared  on  the  coasts  of 
the  Black  Sea,  in  Sicily,  Lower  Italy,  and 
North  Africa.  In  conjunction  with  colonising 
activity,  trade  received  an  impetus,  and  soon 
invigorated  industrial  activity.  The  lonians 
manufactured  pottery,  ornaments,  wine,  linen, 
cloth  and  weapons.  Money  economy  replaced 
natural  economy  and  local  barter.  Even  in 
Homeric  times  cattle  served  as  a  measure  of 
value  and  medium  of  exchange ;  later,  copper 
and  iron  coins  were  minted,  and  gold  and 
silver  money  appeared  in  the  eighth  century. 
The  thirst  for  wealth  which  had  revealed 
itself  even  in  the  Homeric  period — Ulysses 
(Odyssey)  collected  property  and  goods 
during  his  wanderings — became  henceforth  a 
passion  with  the  possessing  class.     The  first 


54      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

to  suffer  from  this  cause  were  the  peasants, 
who  were  sold  up  or  expropriated.  About  a 
century  after  the  composition  of  the  Iliad  and 
the  Odyssey,  we  hear  the  first  individual  poet, 
Hesiod,  of  Askra  in  Boetia,  whom  tradition 
says  was  a  small  peasant,  give  utterance  to 
complaints  at  the  oppression  of  the  small 
property  owners,  at  the  growing  injustices, 
and  the  excessive  power  of  the  rich.  In 
moving  words  he  bewails  the  disappearance 
of  the  Golden  Age,  when  '*  work  was  still 
done  for  its  own  sake,  and  its  results  were 
blessed  "  ;  the  second,  third  and  fourth  ages 
had  also  disappeared,  which  were  followed 
by  the  iron  age  of  painful  and  harmful 
toil: 

"  Would  that  then  I  had  not  mingled  with 
the  fifth  race  of  men,  but  had  either  died 
before  or  been  born  afterwards.  For  now  in 
truth  is  the  iron  race,  neither  will  they  ever 
cease  by  day  nor  at  all  by  night  from  toil  and 
wretchedness,  corrupt  as  they  are,  but  the 
gods  will  give  them  severe  cares. 

"  Nor  will  sire  be  like-minded  to  sons,  nor 
sons  at  all  to  parent,  nor  will  brother  be  dear, 
even  as  it  was  aforetime  to  brother. 

"Might  is  right;  and  one  will  sack  the 
city  of  another ;  nor  will  there  be  any  favour 


GREECE  55 

to  the  trusty  nor  the  just  nor  the  good,  but 
rather  they  will  honour  a  man  that  doeth  evil 
and  is  overbearing.  But  the  baneful  griefs 
shall  remain  behind,  and  against  evil  there 
shall  be  no  resource  "  (Hesiod,  Works  and 
Days) . 

The  strong  fall  upon  the  good  like  birds  of 
prey.  Following  the  above-quoted  verses 
Hesiod  relates  the  fable  of  the  hawk  and  the 
nightingale  : 

"  Thus  the  hawk  addressed  the  nightingale 
of  variegated  throat,  as  he  carried  her  in  his 
talons,  when  he  had  caught  her  very  high  in 
the  clouds. 

"  She  then,  pierced  on  all  sides  by  his 
crooked  talons,  was  wailing  piteously,  whilst 
he  victoriously  addressed  his  speech  to  her : 
*  Wretch,  wherefore  criest  thou  ?  'tis  a  much 
stronger  that  holds  thee.  Thou  wilt  go  that 
way  by  which  I  may  lead  thee,  songstress 
though  thou  art ;  and  my  supper,  if  I  choose, 
I  shall  make,  or  shall  let  go.  But  senseless 
is  he  who  chooses  to  contend  against  them 
that  are  stronger,  and  he  is  robbed  of  victory, 
and  suffers  griefs  in  addition  to  indignities.' 
So  spake  the  fleet-flying  hawk,  broad- 
pinioned  bird." 

Hesiod  is,  however,  no  rebel.     He  exhorts 


56      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

his  people  to  return  to  honest  labour,  and 
thereby  attain  to  prosperity  : 

"  Now,  work  is  no  disgrace,  but  sloth  is  a 
disgrace.  And  if  thou  shouldst  work,  quickly 
will  the  sluggard  envy  thee  growing  rich,  for 
esteem  and  glory  accompany  wealth/' 

He  is  not  a  prophet  of  doom,  or  foreteller 
of  disaster,  but  a  mild  moral  preacher,  quite 
in  the  spirit  of  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon. 

2.  Economic  Antagonisms. 

The  moralists,  however,  were  not  able  to 
retard  the  disintegrating  process.  The  money 
system,  trade  and  industry,  divided  Hellenic 
society  into  rich  and  poor.  The  small  land- 
worker  fell  into  debt,  interest  was  high,  the 
usurer  harsh  and  legislation  implacable,  as  it 
was  made  in  the  interest  of  the  possessing 
classes — which  is  always  the  case  when  the 
community  develops  into  the  class  state. 
Plato's  observations  upon  this  subject  are 
excellent.  In  his  work  The  Laws  (Fourth 
Book)  he  asserts  in  his  truly  philosophic 
manner  :  "  Now  you  must  regard  this  as  a 
matter  of  first-rate  importance  (questions  of 
law  and  constitution).  For  what  is  to  be 
the  standard  of  just  and  unjust  is  once  more 


GREECE  57 

the  point  at  issue.  Men  say  that  the  law 
ought  not  to  regard  either  mihtary  virtue  or 
virtue  in  general,  but  only  the  interests  and 
power  and  preservation  of  the  established  form 
of  government.  This  is  thought  by  them  to 
be  the  best  way  of  expressing  the  natural 
definition  of  justice  .  .  .  and  do  you  suppose 
that  the  tyranny  or  democracy,  or  any  other 
conquering  power,  does  not  make  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  power  which  is  possessed  by 
them  the  first  or  principal  object  of  their 
laws?  And  whoever  transgresses  this  law  is 
punished  as  an  evildoer  by  the  legislator  who 
calls  the  laws  just."  Thus  speaks  the  sup- 
porter of  the  class  state.  "  Now  according 
to  our  view,"  declares  Plato,  "  laws  are  not 
right  which  are  not  passed  for  the  good  of  the 
whole  state."  In  the  iron  age,  however,  class 
government  prevailed,  and  the  small  people 
had  much  to  suffer.  The  debtors  who  were 
not  able  to  pay,  fell,  with  their  families,  into 
servitude,  the  handicraftsmen  lost  their 
independence,  as  also  the  small  business 
people.  By  the  side  of  the  noble  class  of 
large  landowners  arose  a  rich  bourgeoisie, 
which  soon  intermarried,  and  grew  into  a 
homogeneous  ruling  class.  **  The  base  inter- 
marries   with    the    noble,    and    classes    are 


58      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

confused,"  complains  a  poet.  Wealth  created 
honour  and  power.  At  the  end  of  the  sixth 
century  Hellas  reached  the  beginning  of 
modern  times.  Theognis  of  Megara,  a  proud 
but  impoverished  squire,  who  despised  the 
plutocracy  as  much  as  the  lower  classes, 
sketched  a  picture  of  the  manners  of  this 
epoch.  He  flourished  in  the  third  quarter  of 
the  sixth  century  in  Megara,  which  lay 
between  Corinth  and  Athens.  At  this  place 
about  the  year  649  the  enraged  masses  had 
fallen  on  the  flocks  of  the  large  landowners, 
and  slaughtered  them,  as  the  increased  sheep- 
raising  had  led  to  the  breaking  up  of  numerous 
farmsteads,  similar  to  the  state  of  England 
at  the  time  of  Thomas  More.  In  his  Elegies 
and  Proverbs  Theognis  laments  : 

"  It  is  not  for  nothing,  Plutus,  that  riiortals 
do  honour  thee  most,  for  of  truth  thou  bearest 
distress  with  ease.  For,  verily,  it  is  fitting 
for  the  bettermost  to  have  wealth  indeed,  but 
poverty  is  proper  for  a  mean  man  to  bear. 
Many  dunces  have  riches,  but  others  seek 
what  is  noble  though  harassed  by  severe 
poverty,  but  impossibilities  of  working  lie 
beside  both.  The  one  class  want  of  riches 
impedes — of  intellect  the  other.  For  to  the 
multitude  of  men  there  is  this  virtue  only, 


GREECE  59 

namely,  to  be  rich,  but  of  the  rest  I  wot  there 
is  no  use.  Nay,  then  'tis  right  that  all 
should  lay  up  this  maxim,  that  wealth  has  the 
most  power  among  all." 

And  now  another  poet's  voice  from  the 
second  half  of  the  sixth  century,  the  drink- 
loving  and  life-loving  Anacreon  : 

"  What  avails  ingenuous  worth, 
Sprightly  wit  or  noble  birth  ? 
All  these  virtues  useless  prove, 
Gold  alone  engages  love. 
May  he  be  completely  cursed 
Who  the  sleeping  mischief  first 
Wak'd  to  hfe  : 

Gold  creates  in  brethren  strife, 
Gold  destroys  the  parent's  life ; 
Gold  produces  civil  jars, 
Murders,  massacres  and  wars. 
But  the  worst  effect  of  gold, 
Love,  alas,  is  bought  and  sold." 

The  social  ferment  which  set  in  at  the  end 
of  the  eighth  century  became  stronger  during 
the  following  century.  The  mass  of  the 
people,  or  the  Demos,  to  use  the  Greek 
expression,  which  consisted  of  enslaved 
peasants,  handicraftsmen,  tradespeople  and 
sailors,  had  not  yet  forgotten  the  old  equality, 
which  the  poets  had  celebrated  as  the  Golden 
Age.     In  periods  of  great  dearth  they  revolted 


60      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

against  the  land  and  money  lords;  struggles 
of  classes  and  parties  broke  out,  which  closely 
occupied  the  statesmen  and  thinkers  of  the 
lonians  and  Dorians.  While  in  Athens  much 
preliminary  discussion  and  philosophising 
was  taking  place,  and  some  moderate  reforms 
were  carried  out,  the  Spartans  went  to 
work  early,  and  accomplished  a  communist 
revolution. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   PRACTICE   OF   COMMUNISM   IN   SPARTA 

(i)  The  Lycurgian  Legislation. 

The  conception  of  primitive  equality  per- 
sisted in  a  far  stronger  form  and  for  a  much 
longer  period  amongst  the  Dorians  than 
amongst  the  lonians.  The  cause  of  this 
difference  may  be  sought  in  the  fact  that  the 
Dorian  settlements  were  of  an  agricultural 
nature,  and  neglected  trade  and  sea-faring. 
Thus,  in  their  case  there  were  lacking  two 
important  factors,  which  hastened  everywhere 
the  process  of  dissolution  of  primitive 
conditions. 

The  first  legislator,  to  whom  tradition  has 
ascribed  the  work  of  the  communistic  revolu- 
tion, was  Lycurgus.  He  is  a  legendary 
figure,  somewhat  like  Moses  among  the 
Hebrews.  Plutarch  (born  a.d.  50),  to  whom 
the  whole  of  the  literary  sources  of  Greek  and 
Roman    history    was    accessible,    wrote    as 

follows  :    "  Generally  speaking,  nothing  can 

61 


62      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

be  said  with  certainty  respecting  the  legislator 
Lycurgus,  as  the  historians  differ  considerably 
among  themselves  as  to  his  origin,  his  journeys 
and  his  death ;  there  is  least  unanimity  as  to 
the  period  in  which  this  man  lived. ' '  Lycurgus 
was  remembered  by  the  Spartans  as  a  wise, 
gentle  and  unselfish  lawgiver,  who  transformed 
the  whole  economic  order  by  a  political 
reform,  and  firmly  established  communism. 

"  The  second  and  boldest  innovation  of 
Lycurgus,"  says  Plutarch,  "  was  a  new  division 
of  the  lands.  For  he  found  a  prodigious 
inequality,  the  city  overcharged  with  many 
indigent  persons  who  had  no  land,  and  the 
wealth  centred  in  the  hands  of  a  few.  Deter- 
mined, therefore,  to  root  out  the  evils  of 
insolence,  envy,  avarice  and  luxury,  and  those 
distempers  of  a  State  still  more  inveterate 
and  fatal — I  mean  poverty  and  riches — he 
persuaded  the  citizens  to  cancel  all  former 
divisions  of  land  and  to  make  new  ones,  in 
such  a  manner  that  they  might  be  perfectly 
equal  in  their  possessions  and  way  of  living. 
Hence,  if  they  were  impatient  of  distinction, 
they  might  seek  it  in  virtue,  as  no  other 
difference  was  left  between  them  but  that 
which  arises  from  the  dishonour  of  base 
actions  and  the  praise  of  good  ones." 


PRACTICE  OF  COMMUNISM  IN  SPARTA    63 

It  is  hardly  credible  that  the  owners 
acquiesced  in  the  surrender  of  their  lands  only 
and  solely  through  the  persuasion  of  Lycurgus. 
A  more  potent  influence  was  the  fact  that  the 
poor  and  needy  comprised  a  great  multitude, 
whilst  wealth  was  concentrated  in  a  few 
hands,  and  the  Spartans  were  really  Spartans, 
who  knew  the  use  of  arms.  Anyhow,  the 
rich  were  constrained  to  assent  to  the  institu- 
tion of  communism.  The  proposal  was  put 
into  practice.  Lycurgus  made  9000  lots  for 
the  territory  of  Sparta,  which  he  distributed 
among  so  many  citizens,  and  30,000  for  the 
inhabitants  of  the  rest  of  Laconia. 

A  story  goes  of  our  legislator  that  some  time 
after,  returning  from  a  journey  through  the 
fields  just  harvested,  and  seeing  the  shooks 
standing  parallel  and  equal,  he  smiled  and  said 
to  some  that  w^re  by,  "  How  like  is  Laconia 
to  an  estate  newly  divided  among  many 
brothers."  After  this,  he  attempted  to  divide 
also  the  movables,  but  he  soon  perceived  that 
the  people  could  not  bear  to  have  their  goods 
directly  taken  from  them,  and  therefore  took 
another  method,  counteracting  their  avarice 
by  a  stratagem.  First,  he  stopped  the 
currency  of  the  gold  and  silver  coin,  and 
ordered  that  they  should  make  use  of  iron 


64      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

money  only,  then  to  a  great  quantity  and 
heavy  weight  of  this  he  assigned  but  a  small 
value,  so  that  to  lay  up  lo  minae  (£31  los.) 
a  whole  room  was  required,  and  to  remove 
it  nothing  less  than  a  yoke  of  oxen.  When 
this  became  current,  many  kinds  of  injustices 
ceased  in  Laconia.  Who  would  steal  or 
take  a  bribe,  who  would  defraud  or  rob 
when  he  could  not  conceal  the  booty,  or 
be  dignified  by  the  possession  of  it  ?  In 
the  next  place  he  excluded  unprofitable 
and  superfluous  arts.  Trade  and  shipping 
ceased.  Meals  were  simple  and  taken  in 
common;  they  consisted  of  the  famous 
black  soup,  bread,  cheese,  wine,  figs  and 
vegetables,  sometimes  of  game  or  other 
meat.  Eating  in  common  was  the  strict 
obligation  of  every  citizen.  Even  the  children 
were  admitted  to  these  meals,  in  order  to 
learn  from  the  talk  of  the  adults. 

"  As  for  the  education  of  youth,"  says 
Plutarch,  "  Lycurgus  began  with  it  at  the  very 
source,  taking  into  consideration  their  con- 
ception and  birth  by  regulating  the  marriages. 
He  ordered  the  virgins  to  exercise  themselves 
in  running,  wrestling,  and  throwing  quoits 
and  darts.  In  order  to  take  away  the  exces- 
sive tenderness  and  delicacy  of  the  sex,  he 


PRACTICE  OF  COMMUNISM  IN  SPARTA    05 

accustomed  the  virgins  occasionally  to  be  seen 
naked  as  well  as  the  young  men,  and  to  dance 
and  sing  in  their  presence  on  certain  festivals. 
As  for  the  virgins  appearing  naked,  there  was 
nothing  disgraceful  in  it,  because  everything 
was  conducted  with  modesty  and  without  one 
indecent  word  or  action.  Nay,  it  caused  a 
simplicity  of  manners  and  an  emulation  for  the 
best  development  of  the  body,  since  the  female 
sex  was  not  excluded  from  sharing,  with  the 
male  sex,  the  deeds  of  bravery  and  honour. 
Lycurgus  established  a  proper  regard  to 
modesty  and  decorum  with  respect  to  mar- 
riage, but  he  was  equally  studious  to  drive 
from  that  state  the  vain  and  womanish  passion 
of  jealousy  by  making  it  quite  respectable  to 
have  children  in  common  with  persons  of 
merit."  The  healthy  children  were  designed 
for  nurture  and  education,  but  the  sickly 
ones  were  cast  aside.  The  chief  aim  of 
education  was  to  furnish  the  State  with 
strong,  active  and  fearless  fighters,  to  imbue 
the  latter  with  an  unshakable  sense  of  their 
solidarity — in  short,  to  produce  men  of  action, 
and  not  chatterers.  "  In  general,  Lycurgus  so 
regulated  his  citizens  that  they  neither  knew 
nor  desired  a  separate  private  life,  but,  like 
bees,   they  acted  with  one  impulse  for  the 


66      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES  IN  ANTIQUITY 

public  good,  and  always  assembled  about 
their  chief.  They  were  possessed  with  a 
thirst  of  honour,  an  enthusiasm  which  made 
them  forget  their  individual  feelings,  and  had 
no  wish  but  for  their  country." 

This  communistic  and  military  constitution 
enabled  the  Spartans  to  retain  their  supremacy 
in  Peloponnesia,  and,  finally,  to  defeat  even 
the  Athenians  (404  B.C.)  and  compel  them  to 
capitulate.  The  Spartan  State  appeared  even 
to  the  greatest  minds  of  Greece,  such  as  Plato 
and  Antisthenes,  as  the  fixed  pole  in  the  whirl- 
pool of  the  Hellenic  States.  Antisthenes,  a 
disciple  of  Socrates,  said,  "  Sparta  is  far  above 
all  other  States,  and,  in  comparison  with 
Athens,  it  is  like  a  meeting  of  men  contrasted 
with  a  chattering  of  women  in  a  boudoir." 
The  Lycurgian  constitution  was  generally 
famous  throughout  antiquity  as  far  as  the 
sphere  of  Hellenic  civilisation  extended.  It 
became  the  ideal  of  many  thinkers,  including 
perhaps  the  leaders  of  the  slave  revolts  in  the 
Roman  Empire. 

But  we,  who  possess  to-day  such  immeasur- 
ably richer  experience  of  political  questions, 
must  consider  the  Lycurgian  State  to  have 
been  very  one-sided.     It  was  aristocratic  and 


PRACTICE  OF  COMMUNISM  IN  SPARTA     G7 

warlike;  it  was  based  on  the  productive 
labour  of  the  helots — a  multitude  of  enslaved 
people  who  formed  the  means  for  production, 
and  belonged  as  common  property  to  the 
entire  State.  In  this  respect  the  Spartans 
deprived  themselves  of  one  of  the  most 
fruitful  elements  of  human  growth — pro- 
ductive labour.  Their  communism  consisted 
only  in  having  and  enjoying  goods  in  common, 
and  not  in  communist  production.  Strictly 
speaking,  it  was  not  an  educational  force,  but 
a  discipline  imposed  by  the  ruler  and  the 
warrior. 

The  entire  absence  of  democracy,  which 
might,  to  some  degree,  have  curbed  the  rulers, 
as  well  as  the  neglect  of  philosophy  and  the 
arts,  which  might  have  elevated  the  intellectual 
life,  and  finally  the  constant  pre-occupation 
with  gymnastic  and  military  exercises,  made 
the  Spartans  aggressive  and  warlike  as 
neighbours,  and  heartless  as  rulers  of  the 
wealth-creating  helots.  In  order  to  protect 
themselves  from  the  revolts  of  the  oppressed 
and  exploited  class,  such  as  the  rebellion 
which  broke  out  in  the  year  464,  the  Spartans 
organised  massacres  among  the  helots,  from 
time  to  time,  with  the  object  of  removing 


68      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

the  most  courageous  and  capable  of  them. 
The  morahty  which  Lycurgus  had  impressed 
upon  his  fellow- citizens  was  a  purely  local 
and  State  morality,  and  in  no  sense  spiritual 
and  humanitarian.  In  any  case,  these  con- 
ditions were  bound  to  create  a  splendid  race 
of  men  and  women;  and  they  would  have 
produced  intellectually  outstanding  men,  if 
the  mind  and  the  character  had  been  developed 
as  much  as  the  body.  When,  in  the  third 
century,  many  Spartan  nobles  came  under  the 
influence  of  the  Ionian  philosophy  and  the 
social  ethics  of  the  Stoics,  their  intellectual 
natures  grew  to  heroic  proportions.  The 
first  martyr  of  communism  was  a  Spartan. 

(2)  Agis,  the  first  Communist  Martyr. 

In  the  course  of  centuries  war  and  exploita- 
tion undermined  the  Spartan  communism. 
The  victorious  participation  of  Sparta  in  the 
liberation  wars  of  the  lonians  against  the 
Persians  (494-479),  as  well  as  the  struggle  for 
supremacy  in  Greece,  which  ensued  forty 
years  later,  followed  by  the  Peloponnesian 
War  (431-404)  and  succeeding  wars  up  to 
the  year  371,  brought  to  the  Spartans  much 


PRACTICE  OF  COMMUNISM  IN  SPARTA     69 

glory,  much  gold  and  silver,  but  also  catastro- 
phic defeats  and  internal  disruption,  and  swept 
away  all  the  institutions  that  were  bound  up 
with  the  Lycurgian  legislation. 

Plutarch  relates :  "  The  first  symptoms 
of  corruption  and  distempers  in  their  common- 
wealth appeared  at  the  time  when  the 
Spartans  had  entirely  destroyed  the  Athenian 
power,  and  begun  to  bring  gold  and  silver 
into  Lacedemonia.  When  the  love  of  money 
made  its  way  into  Sparta,  and  brought 
avarice  and  meanness  in  its  train,  on  the  one 
hand,  on  the  other  profusion,  effeminacy  and 
luxury,  that  State  soon  deviated  from  its 
original  virtue,  and  sank  into  contempt 
till  the  reign  of  Agis  and  Leonidas.  Men  of 
fortune  now  extended  their  landed  estates 
without  bounds,  not  scrupling  to  exclude  the 
right  heirs,  and  property  quickly  coming  into 
a  few  hands,  the  rest  of  the  people  were  poor 
and  miserable.  There  remained  not  above 
700  of  the  old  Spartan  families,  of  which 
perhaps  100  had  estates  in  land.  The  rest 
of  the  city  was  filled  with  an  insignificant 
rabble  without  property  or  honour,  who  had 
neither  heart  nor  spirit  to  defend  their 
country  against  wars  abroad,  and  who  were 


70      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

always  watching  an  opportunity  for  changes 
and  revolutions  at  home." 

Agis  was  of  the  royal  house,  and  belonged 
to  one  of  the  richest  families  in  Sparta.  By  aU 
indications  he  was  familiar  with  the  Stoic  philo- 
sophy, and  was  distinguished  by  great  intel- 
lectual gifts  and  high-mindedness.  Although 
at  that  time  he  was  not  yet  twenty  years 
old,  and  had  been  pampered  and  nurtured 
in  luxury  by  his  mother,  Agistrata,  and  his 
grandmother,  Archidamia,  he  renounced  all 
enjoyment  and  returned  to  the  old  Spartan 
simplicity,  or,  as  the  Stoics  said,  to  nature. 
Agis  also  declared  that  the  kingly  dignity 
mattered  nothing  to  him,  if  it  would  not 
permit  him  to  restore  the  old  laws  and  the 
primitive  institutions.  The  young  people 
welcomed  his  ideas,  while  the  old  men  and  the 
women  opposed  him.  Even  his  own  family 
were  against  the  proposed  reform,  but  he 
gained  their  support  by  convincing  his  mother 
that  the  proposal  was  practicable,  and  would 
prove  to  be  to  the  advantage  of  the  State. 
He  states,  "  It  is  impossible  for  me  ever  to 
vie  with  other  kings  in  point  of  opulence.  But 
if  by  sobriety,  by  simplicity  of  provisions  for 
the  body,  and  by  greatness  of  mind  I  can  do 


PRACTICE  OF  COMMUNISM  IN  SPARTA     71 

something  which  shall  far  exceed  all  their 
pomp  and  luxury— I  mean  the  making  an 
equal  partition  of  property  among  all  the 
citizens— I  shall  really  become  a  great  king, 
and  have  all  the  honour  that  such  actions 
demand."  His  mother  and  his  grandmother 
were  won  over  to  the  plan  of  reform.  Agis 
then  proceeded  to  put  it  into  practice.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Spartan  constitution,  two  kings 
stood  at  the  head  of  the  country,  and  were 
controlled  by  five  Ephors  (supervisory  officials, 
chosen  by  the  noblest  families),  having  the 
decisive  voice  in  the  case  of  difference  of 
opinion  between  the  two  kings.  Projects 
of  law  were  laid  before  the  Senate,  and  then 
remitted  to  the  People's  Assembly,  which 
decided  their  fate.  Agis  expounded  his 
legislative  proposals  before  the  Senate,  namely 
that  all  debts  should  be  forgiven  the  debtors 
and  the  whole  of  the  land  be  divided  afresh 
into  19,500  equal  portions  :  4,500  among  the 
native  Spartans,  men  and  women,  and  15,000 
among  the  Periokia  (descendants  of  the  pre- 
Dorian  population)  and  such  foreigners  as 
were  fitted  by  their  physical  and  mental 
qualities  to  be  assimilated  into  the  polity  of 
Sparta.     All  the  people  were  to  be  divided 


72      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

into  groups  for  common  meals,  and  to  revert 
to  the  modes  of  life  of  old  Sparta. 

The  Senate  was  unable  to  agree  upon  this 
legislative  proposal,  whereupon  one  of  the 
Ephors,  who  was  in  accord  with  Agis,  brought 
the  matter  before  the  People's  Assembly, 
and  spoke  against  the  unwilling  Senators. 
After  some  discussion,  Agis  himself  spoke 
and  informed  the  People's  representatives  that 
he  would  contribute  largely  to  the  institution 
which  he  recommended.  He  would  first  give 
up  to  the  community  his  own  great  estate, 
consisting  of  arable  and  pasture  land,  and  of 
600  talents  in  money.  Then  his  mother  and 
grandmother  and  all  his  relations  and  friends, 
who  were  the  richest  persons  in  Sparta,  would 
follow  his  example.  The  People's  representa- 
tives were  delighted  with  the  magnanimity 
of  Agis,  but  his  co-regent  Leonidas  spoke 
against  the  plan,  especially  as  regards  the 
release  from  debts  and  the  admittance  of 
foreigners.  Agis  replied,  and  the  people 
declared  for  his  proposed  law,  but  there  was 
considerable  opposition  among  the  Ephors 
and  in  the  Senate,  which  found  a  determined 
leader  in  Leonidas.  The  latter,  however, 
could  await  his  opportunity.     In  order  to  be 


PRACTICE  OF  COMMUNISM  IN  SPARTA    73 

safe  from  attack,  Agis  sought  refuge  in  the 
temple  of  Neptune,  which  he  left  only  to 
bathe.  Leonidas,  who  had  surrounded  him- 
self with  a  posse  of  soldiers,  organised  the 
attack  on  Agis.  When  the  latter  chanced  to 
find  himself  outside  the  temple,  three  warriors 
approached  him,  overpowered  him  and  cast 
him  into  prison.  Leonidas  immediately  ap- 
peared with  a  troop  of  soldiers  and  occupied 
the  building.  The  Ephors  and  some  Senators 
then  entered  the  prison,  formed  a  tribunal, 
and  endeavoured  by  various  means  to  induce 
Agis  to  abandon  his  plans.  When,  however, 
he  assured  them  that  he  felt  no  repentance 
and  could  retract  nothing,  as  the  Lycurgian 
constitution  was  the  best,  they  condemned 
him  to  death  by  hanging.  The  request  of 
his  mother  and  grandmother,  to  bring  him 
before  a  proper  tribunal,  and  to  conduct  the 
proceedings  in  public,  was  refused  by  the 
Ephors,  as  they  were  aware  of  the  popularity 
of  the  prisoner.  On  the  same  grounds  they 
hastened  the  execution.  Immediately  after 
sentence  had  been  pronounced,  Agis  was 
conducted  to  the  place  of  execution.  On  the 
way  he  noticed  one  of  the  servants  who  was 
weeping   and   lamenting,    and   said   to   him, 


74      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

"  My  friend,  dry  up  your  tears,  for  as  I  suffer 
innocently,  I  am  in  a  better  condition  than 
those  who  condemn  me,  contrary  to  law  and 
justice."  So  saying,  he  cheerfully  offered  his 
neck  to  the  executioner.  Afterwards,  both 
his  grandmother  and  mother,  Agistrata,  were 
executed.  When  Agistrata,  on  reaching  the 
place  of  execution,  saw  her  son  lying  dead  on 
the  ground,  and  her  mother  hanging  from  the 
rope,  with  the  help  of  an  attendant  she  took 
down  the  latter  and  laid  her  by  the  side  of 
Agis.  Then  she  threw  herself  on  her  son,  and 
kissed  his  face,  saying,  "  Thy  too  great 
gentleness,  my  son,  thy  mercy  and  humanity 
have  brought  misfortune  on  thee  and  us." 
Then  she  placed  herself  on  the  gallows,  and 
cried,  "  May  this  but  promote  the  welfare 
of  Sparta."     These  events  took  place  240  B.C. 


3.  The  Reforms  of  Cleomenes. 

Five  years  after  the  execution  of  Agis, 
Cleomenes  (235-222  B.C.),  the  son  of  Leonidas, 
became  ruler.  He  had  married  the  widow 
of  Agis,  and  had  thoroughly  mastered  the 
reform  proposals  of  the  latter.  He  then 
decided  to  put  them  into  practice.     But  he 


PRACTICE  OF  COMMUNISM  IN  SPARTA     75 

was  more  warlike  than  Agis,  being  a  genuine 
Spartan,  who  perceived  in  the  might  of  his 
army,  in  battle  and  victory,  the  best  means  to 
his  end.  He  believed  that  only  as  a  victorious 
captain  could  he  obtain  sufficient  authority 
in  the  State  to  be  able  to  remove  the  anti- 
communists,  the  Ephors,  and  the  rich.  An 
opportunity  soon  offered  itself  to  invade  a 
neighbouring  State,  and  to  win  a  triumph, 
which,  however,  developed  into  a  series  of 
wars.  After  his  first  victory,  Cleomenes 
interfered  with  the  Spartan  constitution,  and 
abolished  the  position  of  Ephors;  then  he 
banished  eighty  citizens  who  were  hostile  to 
reform,  and  convoked  a  general  assembly  of 
the  people,  before  which  he  justified  his 
conduct.  He  accused  the  Ephors  of  usurping 
an  ever  larger  measure  of  power,  contrary  to 
the  spirit  of  the  constitution,  and  of  secretly 
setting  up  their  own  tribunal.  Further,  they 
had  banished  or  executed  those  kings  who 
desired  to  see  the  excellent  and  admirable 
institutions  of  Lycurgus  restored.  It  had 
therefore  become  necessary  to  put  the  Ephors 
out  of  the  way.  Cleomenes  then  continued  : 
"  Had  I  been  able,  without  bloodshed,  to 
banish  from  Lacedemonia  the  diseases  and 


76      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

crimes,  luxury,  love  of  splendour,  debts  and 
usury,  and  the  far  more  considerable  evils  of 
riches  and  poverty,  which  have  insinuated 
themselves  into  our  State,  I  should  have 
considered  myself  the  most  fortunate  of  all 
kings.  I  have,  however,  made  the  most 
temperate  use  of  the  force  at  my  disposal, 
by  merely  removing  those  who  stood  in  the 
way  of  the  welfare  of  Lacedemonia.  Among 
all  the  rest  I  will  now  divide  equally  the  whole 
of  the  land ;  the  debtors  will  be  forgiven  their 
debts,  a  selection  will  be  made  of  the  foreigners 
so  that  only  the  bravest  shall  become  Spartans 
and  help  to  defend  the  town,  that  we  may  no 
longer  see  Lacedemonia  fall  a  prey  to  the 
^tolians  and  the  Illyrians  for  lack  of 
defenders."  Having  said  this,  he  placed  his 
possessions  at  the  disposal  of  the  people.  His 
example  was  followed  by  his  kinsmen  and 
friends,  and  then  by  all  the  remainder  of  the 
citizens.  The  land  was  partitioned,  a  portion 
even  being  allotted  to  the  banished  citizens, 
and  Cleomenes  promised  that  they  would  all 
be  permitted  to  return  as  soon  as  the  State 
settled  down  again.  He  restored  the  old 
Spartan  simplicity  of  life,  and  proceeded  him- 
self to  set  a  good  example. 


PRACTICE  OF  COMMUNISM  IN  SPARTA     77 

Had  the  foreign  policy  of  Cleomenes  hence- 
forth been  of  a  peaceful  character,  Sparta 
would  once  more  have  become  a  model,  and 
the  other  Hellenic  States  would  have  been 
obliged  to  introduce  the  Spartan  social  reforms. 
But  the  warlike  policy  which  he  pursued  made 
enemies  of  his  neighbours. 

Instead  of  love,  the  social  reforms  of  Sparta 
inspired  fear.  In  their  need,  the  neighbouring 
States  appealed  to  the  Macedonians,  in  order 
to  be  able  to  ward  off  the  Spartan  attack. 
For  several  years  Cleomenes,  with  his  trusty 
army,  was  able,  single-handed,  to  hold  the 
coalition  at  bay,  and  to  defeat  it,  but  finally 
he  succumbed. 

Plutarch  gives  the  following  account  of  the 
course  of  the  war  : 

"  Cleomenes  not  only  inspired  in  his  citizens 
courage  and  confidence,  but  even  by  the 
enemy  he  was  considered  an  excellent  general. 
With  the  force  of  a  single  town  to  withstand 
both  the  might  of  the  Macedonians  and  the 
united  Peloponnesians,  and  not  only  to 
protect  Lacedemonia  against  every  attack,  but 
also  to  overrun  the  country  of  the  enemy, 
and  to  capture  such  large  towns — these  deeds 
seemed    to    betray   unusual    skilfulness    and 


78      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

magnanimity.  Whoever  first  called  money 
the  nerve  of  all  things  in  the  world  may  well 
have  said  this  in  special  reference  to  the 
war.  ...  As  the  Macedonians  were  amply 
provided  with  all  requisite  accessories  to  carry 
on  the  war  permanently,  they  were  bound 
eventually  to  be  victorious  and  to  humble 
Cleomenes,  who  could  only,  with  great  efforts, 
pay  his  soldiers  and  provide  support  for  his 
citizens." 

When  Cleomenes  was  at  length  defeated 
{222  B.C.,  at  Sellasia)  he  advised  the  citizens 
of  Sparta  to  open  the  door  to  Antigonus,  the 
king  of  Macedonia.  The  latter  took  possession 
of  the  town,  but  treated  the  Lacedemonians 
with  great  clemency  and  humanity.  Without 
injuring  or  insulting  the  dignity  of  Sparta, 
he  gave  them  back  their  laws  and  constitution, 
that  is,  the  old  laws  which  were  in  force 
before  the  reigns  of  Agis  and  Cleomenes,  the 
non-communist  laws. 

4.  Communistic  Settlement  in  Lipara. 

It  is  related  by  the  Sicilian  author,  Diodorus, 
that  about  the  year  580  several  Knidians  and 
Rhodians  decided  to  leave  their  homes,   as 


PRACTICE  OF  COMMUNISM  IN  SPARTA    79 

they  were  discontented  with  the  oppressive 
rule  of  the  Lydian  kings.  They  sailed  towards 
the  west,  and  when  they  landed  at  Lipara 
(an  island  near  Sicily)  they  were  received  in  a 
friendly  manner  by  the  inhabitants,  and  were 
persuaded  by  the  latter  to  join  them  in  forming 
a  community.  Later  on,  when  they  were 
hard  pressed  by  pirates  from  Tyre,  they  con- 
structed a  fleet  and  divided  themselves  in 
such  a  way  that  a  number  of  them  tilled  the 
other  island,  as  a  common  undertaking, 
whilst  the  others  protected  them  from  the 
pirates.  All  property  was  declared  to  be 
held  in  common,  and  the  settlers  also  practised 
the  eating  of  meals  in  common.  This  com- 
munal mode  of  living  lasted  for  some  time. 
Afterwards,  the  settlers  divided  the  island  of 
Lipara,  on  which  the  town  was  situated, 
among  themselves,  and  cultivated  the  other 
island  on  the  communal  principle.  At  length 
both  the  islands  were  partitioned  for  a  period 
of  twenty  years,  and  at  the  expiration  of  this 
term  property  was  divided  again. 

The  institution  of  communal  meals  was 
also  to  be  found  in  Crete.  Numerous  citizens 
of  Crete  were  provided  with  repasts  out 
of    public    funds.     Plato    believed    that    the 


80     SOCIAL  STRUGGLES  IN  ANTIQUITY 

communal  meals  were  established  with  the 
object  of  keeping  the  citizens  in  military  trim, 
or  to  protect  them  from  want.  He  considered 
the  practice  to  be  a  divine  necessity  (Laws, 
Book  VI.  chap.  21),  and  an  institution  of  the 
ideal  State. 


CHAPTER  IV 

COMMUNISTIC   THEORIES    IN   ATHENS 

I.  Solon's  Middle-Class  Reforms. 

At  the  time  when  Sparta  became  a  com- 
munistic State,  the  nobles  ruled  in  Attica, 
and  gradually  deprived  the  peasants  of  their 
rights  and  property,  enslaving  them  by  the 
operation  of  usury.  The  priests  and  the 
judges  were  recruited  from  the  ranks  of  the 
ruling  nobility.  The  producing  class  there- 
fore became  discontented.  The  economic, 
political  and  judicial  iniquities  led  to  conspira- 
cies which  were  suppressed  with  bloodshed. 
In  response  to  the  demand  of  the  people  for 
a  code  of  laws,  the  nobles  charged  the  juris- 
consult, Draco,  to  compile  a  code  of  laws, 
which  have  become  proverbial  for  their 
severity.  Since  that  time  a  Draconian  law 
has  signified  a  harsh,  unpopular  measure. 
It  goes  without  saying  that  this  was  not  the 
way  to  promote  internal  peace.  The  people 
became  ever  more  clamorous  in  their  demands 
for  emancipation  from  the  burden  of  debts 


82      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES  IN  ANTIQUITY 

and  a  fresh  partition  of  the  soil.  As  Attica, 
at  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century,  was 
on  the  eve  of  a  popular  rising,  in  the  year 
594  the  nobles  ordered  Solon,  who  was  known 
to  be  a  friend  of  the  people,  "  to  establish 
peace  between  the  nobles  and  the  people, 
and  to  take  all  legal  measures  that  might 
be  necessary  to  this  end."  Thereupon,  Solon 
carried  out  an  economic  and  political  reform. 
All  debts  secured  upon  land  (mortgages)  were 
cancelled,  and  enslavement  was  forbidden. 
This  reform  is  known  by  the  name  of  Seisach- 
teia  (throwing-off  of  debts).  The  political 
constitution  was  a  timocracy;  it  was  based 
upon  a  census  which  divided  the  citizens  into 
four  classes,  according  to  the  revenue  from 
their  landed  property  :  (i)  large  landowners, 
(2)  knights,  (3)  peasants,  (4)  day  labourers. 
The  members  of  the  first  class  were  eligible 
to  hold  the  highest  offices ;  those  of  the  second 
and  third  classes  were  eligible  for  the  rest  of 
the  State  positions,  while  those  of  the  fourth 
class  could  only  participate  in  the  popular 
assembles  and  the  juries.  On  the  other  hand, 
they  were  excused  the  payment  of  State 
taxes. 

Solon's     constitution,     however,     satisfied 


COMMUNISTIC   THEORIES   IN   ATHENS    83 

neither  the  nobles  nor  the  people.  The  former 
thought  it  too  revolutionary;  the  latter 
deemed  it  to  be  inadequate.  After  a  long 
period  of  internal  and  external  confusion 
political  equality  or  "  democracy "  was 
founded  by  Cleisthenes  at  the  end  of  the 
sixth  century  (509),  but  it  was  also  based 
on  slavery.  There  could  be  no  thought  of 
a  real  democracy,  in  which  all  the  citizens  had 
equal  rights.  Soon  after  this  Athens  entered 
upon  the  period  of  the  Persian  War  (500  to 
431),  in  the  course  of  which  it  developed 
a  victorious  navy,  and  gained  great  commercial 
prosperity.  In  conjunction  with  the  land 
power  of  Sparta,  it  defeated  the  Persians, 
and,  from  a  small  State,  grew  into  a  league 
of  States,  in  which  industry,  trade,  maritime 
commerce,  mental  culture,  poetry  and  art 
flourished.  But  hard  upon  Capitalism  fol- 
lowed Imperialism  (the  contest  for  supremacy 
in  the  Hellenic  world),  the  struggle  of  classes, 
and  the  dissolution  of  Attic  society  into 
individuals  striving  against  each  other. 

2.  Capitalism  and  Disintegration. 

The  Attic  Empire,  with  its  sea  power,  its 
foreign  trade,  and  its  industrial  undertakings, 


84      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

was  quite  different  from  the  small  State  for 
which  the  reforming  laws  of  Solon  had  been 
enacted.  Agriculture,  which  even  at  the 
beginning  of  the  sixth  century  had  not  sufficed 
to  sustain  the  population,  was  transformed 
in  accordance  with  the  mercantile  point  of 
view.  Wide  tracts  of  land  were  given  over 
to  the  culture  of  olives,  as  oil  had  become  a 
profitable  commodity  for  export.  The  popu- 
lation became  dependent  upon  foreign  corn, 
which  was  brought  by  ships  from  the  northern 
coasts  of  the  Black  Sea  into  the  Attic  harbours, 
especially  to  Pirasus.  From  that  district 
cattle,  fish,  wood,  flax,  hemp  and  salt  were 
also  imported.  The  handicraftsmen  were 
transferred  to  the  factories,  and  worked  for 
the  export  trade.  In  this  way  they  fell  into 
dependence  upon  trading  capital.  And  in 
the  degree  that  commodities  lost  their  local 
origin,  and  were  to  be  got  only  through  the 
large  trader  and  the  shipper,  the  shopkeepers 
and  the  small  business  people  forfeited  their 
independence.  It  goes  without  saying  that 
capital  secured  the  lion's  share  of  the  profits. 
"  Aristocratic  persons  consequently  became 
great  merchants  and  shippers,  the  landowners 
became  capitalists,  and  lived  on  their  rents, 


COMMUNISTIC   THEORIES    IN   ATHENS     85 

transferring  their  agricultural  undertakings  to 
managers,  who  carried  them  on  with  the  help 
of  slaves  "  (E.  Mayer,  History  of  Antiquity) . 

Henceforth,  the  free  workers  had  to  struggle 
against  both  the  domination  of  capital  and 
the  tendency  of  slave-labour  to  depress  wages ; 
the  small  middle-class  fell  ever  more  into 
subjection.  Consequently,  the  Demos  waged 
desperate  and  bitter  struggle  against  the  rich, 
and  in  the  interval  the  life  of  Attica  was  severely 
shaken,  and  statesmen  watched  with  growing 
anxiety  the  disruption  of  their  country. 
The  social  and  moral  crisis  was  accentuated 
by  the  Peloponnesian  War,  which  broke  out 
in  the  year  431,  partly  in  consequence  of  the 
maritime  competition  between  Corinth  and 
Athens,  and  partly  because  of  the  struggle 
between  Attica  and  Sparta  for  supremacy 
in  Hellas,  and  ended  with  the  collapse  and 
surrender  of  Athens  in  the  year  404. 

3.  Plato. 

Plato  had  these  conditions  in  mind  when 
he  constructed  the  theoretical  basis  of  a  just 
State.  He  was  born  three  years  after  the 
outbreak    of    the    Peloponnesian    War,    and 


86      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

sprang  from  one  of  the  noblest  families  of 
Athens.  One  of  his  ancestors  in  the  female 
line  was  Solon.  After  he  had  been  taught 
by  Socrates,  he  proceeded  to  Egypt  and  Italy 
in  order  to  continue  his  studies.  By  tem- 
perament and  inclination  he  would  have 
devoted  himself  to  public  work,  but  the  times 
were  anything  but  favourable  for  statesmen 
of  the  mental  calibre  of  Plato.  He  turned 
to  philosophy,  and  became  the  most  famous 
teacher  of  the  Hellenic  world  and  one  of  the 
greatest  thinkers  of  all  time. 

Plato  was  no  supporter  of  Democracy. 
An  out-and-out  intellectual  aristocrat,  the 
thoughtless  multitude,  the  prey  of  demagogues, 
was  as  obnoxious  to  him  as  the  plutocracy 
and  every  kind  of  forcible  rule.  His  most 
important  sociological  works  are  the  Republic 
and  the  Laws.  The  first  book  is  the  more 
ideal  in  its  proposals,  but  it  is  not  nearly  as 
well  constructed  as  the  Laws,  which  in  many 
respects  is  more  readable  than  the  Repiihlic, 
of  whose  ten  books  only  the  fifth,  sixth  and 
eighth  are  valuable.  Both  works  are  written 
in  conversational  style;  the  dialogues  are 
by  no  means  ingenious,  but  mechanical  and 
often  pedantic. 


COMMUNISTIC   THEORIES    IN   ATHENS     87 

(i)  The  Republic  is  not  the  description 
of  an  Utopia.  It  contains  no  picture  of  a 
future  State,  and  certainly  not  the  economic 
basis  of  a  sociaUst  society.  It  is  rather 
an  investigation  into  the  justice  and  the  short- 
comings of  the  various  constitutions  known 
to  history,  and  the  most  important  remedies 
for  a  diseased  body  pohtic.  Plato's  concept 
of  righteousness  had  almost  nothing  in  common 
with  that  of  the  Jewish  prophets.  The  Hellene 
is  above  aU  a  statesman — cool  and  cautious — 
a  clear-headed  patriot.  He  would  not  be 
likely  to  lead  in  a  class  struggle  the  poor  and 
disinherited,  and  obtain  justice  for  them, 
or  to  elevate  the  poor  and  overthrow  the  rich. 
He  does  not  reveal  a  trace  of  prophetical 
vehemence,  nor  any  hint  of  internationalism. 
He  is  rather  anxious  to  bring  healing  to  his 
disrupted  country,  and  to  make  of  it  a  State 
in  which  social  peace  and  concord  shall 
prevail,  and  in  which  every  citizen  shall  go 
about  his  own  business  without  interfering 
with  the  concerns  of  his  neighbour. 

Plato  takes  as  his  starting-point  the  notion 
that  an  ideal  State  originally  existed.  He 
does  not  describe  it  in  the  Republic,  but  refers 
to  the  testimony  of  Hesiod. 


88      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

In  a  somewhat  mystical  manner  he  argues 
that  mankind  from  generation  to  generation 
has  deteriorated  in  excellence  and  fallen  into 
dissensions.  Many  have  striven  after  the 
acquisition  of  money  and  the  possession  of 
land,  houses,  gold  and  silver  coins.  A  war  of  all 
against  all  arose,  and  at  length  men  reached 
an  agreement  to  distribute  the  land  and  houses 
among  themselves.  Private  property  was 
introduced,  and  the  population  was  divided 
into  rulers  and  menials  (Book  VIII.  chap.  3). 
In  another  place  Plato  proceeds  on  psycho- 
logical lines,  and  seeks  to  explain  the  origin 
and  development  of  the  State  according  to 
the  nature  of  the  human  mind  and  the  needs 
of  men  (Book  II.  chaps.  10,  11).  As  an 
isolated  individual  man  requires  help,  he  can 
satisfy  his  physical  needs  only  in  co-operation 
with  others.  Therefore,  men  associate  with 
one  another  and  form  a  State.  Each  citizen 
has  his  occupation — many  are  tillers  of  the 
soil,  others  are  handworkers,  and  they  barter 
their  products  with  one  another.  Thus  trade 
and  money  come  into  existence.  Soon  men 
cease  to  be  contented  with  the  satisfaction 
of  their  mere  necessities,  and  require  articles 
of    luxury.     Ostentation     and     debauchery 


COMMUNISTIC   THEORIES   IN   ATHENS     89 

appear,  and  lead  to  covetousness  and  to  wars 
of  conquest,  which  involve  the  creation  of 
military  power.  The  State  becomes  more 
complex.  Riches  and  poverty  come  into 
being.  The  inner  harmony  disappears;  the 
State  splits  into  two  hostile  groups.  "  Even 
the  smallest  town  is  divided  into  two;  one 
part  is  the  city  of  the  poor,  the  other  the  city 
of  the  rich,  both  at  war  with  each  other  " 
(Book  IV,  chap.  2).  With  the  growth  of 
riches  and  poverty  the  State  becomes  impo- 
tent. The  rich  neglect  their  duties,  and  the 
poor  perform  inferior  work,  and  where  riches 
are  honoured  the  citizens  forget  all  virtue 
and  strive  after  wealth.  The  rich  become 
licentious,  the  poor  servile  and  rebellious, 
and  the  interest  of  the  State  is  neglected  by 
all.  The  State  goes  under.  For,  finally, 
things  go  so  far  that  one  half  of  the  population 
rejoices  over  incidents  that  plunge  the  other 
half  into  sorrow.  These  evils  are  to  be  found 
in  a  timocracy  (Solon's  four-class  constitution) 
and  in  an  oligarchy  (rule  by  a  small  number 
of  property  owners),  in  a  democracy  and  in  a 
tyranny  (Book  VIII.  chaps.  3-12).  All  these 
constitutions  are  based  on  private  property. 
The  timocracy  contained,  however,  many 


90     SOCIAL  STRUGGLES  IN  ANTIQUITY 

vestiges  of  the  ideal  State,  such  as  good  rulers 
and  the  communal  meals  of  the  citizens. 
It  is  succeeded  by  an  oHgarchy,  in  which  the 
quest  of  profit  and  the  acquisition  of  money 
get  the  upper  hand,  so  that  wealth  becomes 
the  measure  of  citizenship.  Such  a  State 
despises  the  love  of  wisdom,  and  all  virtues 
are  supplanted  by  the  greed  for  money.  And 
if  the  insatiability  of  the  rich  has  for  its  con- 
sequence the  poverty  of  the  mass,  the  struggle 
of  parties — on  the  slightest  outside  pressure — 
leads  to  the  triumph  of  the  disinherited,  and 
to  democracy,  in  which  both  groups  lose 
their  sense  of  duty  to  the  State.  Finally, 
things  come  to  a  tyranny,  or  the  forcible 
rule  of  an  individual,  who  begins  by  flattering 
the  masses  in  order  to  subjugate  them. 

These  constitutions  and  laws  do  not  admit 
of  any  amendment.  Most  amusing  are  those 
people  who  are  always  setting  up  legal  restric- 
tions and  putting  forward  amendments,  under 
the  delusion  that  they  can  control  the  march 
of  events,  and  such  trifles  as  we  have  just 
described,  not  once  suspecting  that  they 
are  really  trying  to  cut  off  the  heads  of  a 
hydra  (Book  IV.  chaps.  4,  5). 

Thus  the  State  cannot  be  reformed  unless 


COMMUNISTIC   THEORIES   IN   ATHENS    91 

it  strikes  out  in  a  new  direction,  and  adopts 
another  constitution  under  other  rulers — that 
is,  renews  itself. 

How  is  the  State  to  be  renewed  ?  How  is 
national  policy  to  be  based  on  righteousness  ? 
To  these  questions  Plato  makes  the  famous 
answer  : 

"  Until  either  the  philosophers  shall  be 
made  kings  in  States,  or  those  who  are  now 
called  kings  and  potentates  shall  attain  to 
the  fulness  of  true  philosophy,  and  until 
this  union  of  political  power  in  the  same  person 
is  effected,  no  relief  will  be  possible  for  cities, 
nor  for  the  entire  human  race  "  (Book  V. 
chap.  i8). 

The  philosopher  kings  are  to  guide  the 
people;  they  will  be  the  guardians  of  the 
State.  They  are  to  be  assisted  by  officials 
and  warriors,  who  likewise  will  be  superior 
intellectually  and  morally  to  the  multitude. 

Thorough-going  communism  is  equally 
important,  or,  as  Plato  says  :  *'  It  is  then  a 
matter  upon  which  we  are  all  agreed,  that  in  a 
State  which  aims  at  perfection  wives  and  chil- 
dren must  be  in  common,  and  that  all  educa- 
tion, and  in  like  manner  the  pursuits  of  war 
and  peace,  are  to  be  common,  and  those  of 


92      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

the  citizens  are  to  be  kings  who  have  proved 
themselves  best  as  philosophers  and  warriors  " 
(Book  VIII.  chap.  i).  Communism  will  put 
an  end  to  dissensions  within  the  State. 
"  Does  not  community  of  pleasure  and  pain 
tend  to  unite  a  State,  when  all  the  citizens, 
as  far  as  possible,  rejoice  and  grieve  equally 
at  the  same  events,  happy  or  untoward? 
On  the  other  hand,  does  not  isolation  in  this 
matter  tend  to  divide  a  State?  Whence 
then  does  this  division  come  about,  unless 
it  be  when  the  citizens  do  not,  on  the  same 
occasion,  unite  in  saying  :  '  This  is  mine, 
this  is  not  mine,  this  is  foreign  to  me '  ?  " 

The  chief  thing,  however,  is  education. 
General  compulsory  instruction  will  result 
in  a  careful  selection.  The  future  rulers 
(guardians),  officials  and  assistants  are  to 
be  carefully  trained  in  gymnastics  and  music. 
Above  all  the  supreme  guardians,  the  philo- 
sopher kings.  The  most  promising  scholars, 
who  by  their  activity  and  achievements 
shall  seem  to  be  worthy  stations,  are  to  con- 
tinue learning  until  they  reach  the  age  of 
fifty  years,  and  distinguish  themselves  in 
every  branch  of  knowledge  and  all  political 
actions.     Only    then    will    they   be    enabled 


COMMUNISTIC    THEORIES    IN    ATHENS     93 

to  lift  up  their  eyes  and  behold  the  idea  of 
the  good.  In  the  Platonic  sense  the  idea  is 
not  an  intellectual,  logical  concept,  but  some 
lofty  reality,  an  eternal,  heavenly  pattern, 
which  only  the  most  spiritual  vision  can  per- 
ceive and  reconstruct  on  earth.  "  Our  State 
will  then  be  perfectly  ordered  when  it  has  a 
ruler  who  possesses  all  this  knowledge " 
(Book  VI.  chap.  17). 

The  children  of  handworkers,  labourers,  etc., 
are  not  capable  of  reaching  this  plane  of 
spirituality.  For  the  great  multitude  enjoy- 
ment consists  in  the  pleasures  of  the  senses, 
and  not  of  the  mind.  The  multitude  is 
broken  in  body  as  well  as  crushed  in  soul  by 
its  exhausting  industrial  occupations.  Plato 
is  avowedly  of  opinion  that  only  the  most 
considerable  families,  with  political,  scientific 
and  aesthetic  culture,  will  be  likely  to  produce 
traits  which,  after  careful  cultivation,  wiU 
qualify  them  for  the  highest  posts. 

(2)  The  Laws  are  not  so  idealistic  as  the 
Republic.  They  were  written  at  a  later  date 
than  the  latter.  The  criticism  of  the  property 
relations  is  indeed  as  acute  as  formerly, 
but  the  definite  communist  proposals  are  more 
tentative.     It  may  be  said  that  the  Republic 


94      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

is  revolutionary,  and  that  the  Laws  are 
reformist.  Plato  says  (Laws,  Book  V.)  : 
"  The  first  and  highest  form  of  the  State  and 
of  the  government  and  of  the  law  is  that  in 
which  there  prevails  most  widely  the  ancient 
saying  that  'friends  have  all  things  common.' 
Whether  there  is  anywhere  now  or  will  ever 
be  this  communism  of  women  and  children 
and  of  property,  in  which  the  private  and 
individual  is  altogether  banished  from  life, 
and  things  which  are  by  nature  private, 
such  as  eyes  and  ears  and  hands,  have  become 
common,  and  all  men  express  praise  and 
blame  and  feel  joy  and  sorrow  on  the  same 
occasions,  and  whatever  laws  there  are  unite 
the  city  to  the  utmost,  happy  are  the  men  who 
living  after  this  manner  dwell  there.  And 
therefore  to  this  we  are  to  look  for  the  pattern 
State,  and  to  cling  to  this,  and  to  seek  with 
all  our  might  for  one  which  is  like  this. 
The  State  which  we  have  now  in  mind  will 
be  nearest  to  immortality,  and  the  only  one 
which  takes  the  second  place."  How  can 
such  a  constitution  be  established?  "Let 
the  citizens  at  once  distribute  their  land  and 
houses  and  not  till  the  land  in  common,  since 
a   community   of  goods   goes   beyond   their 


COMMUNISTIC   THEORIES   IN   ATHENS    95 

proposed  origin  and  culture  and  education. 
But  in  making  the  distribution  let  the  several 
possessors  feel  that  their  particular  lots 
belong  to  the  whole  city." 

The  division  of  the  land  shall  be  equal, 
as  far  as  possible.  The  number  of  original 
lots  of  land  is  not  to  be  reduced,  that  is, 
care  must  be  taken  that  neither  large  land- 
owners nor  landless  persons  are  created.  In 
general  the  defects  of  the  old  government 
could  only  be  avoided  by  "  eradicating  the 
lust  for  ownership,  accompanied  by  righteous- 
ness "  (Book  v.).  The  possession  of  gold, 
or  even  of  silver,  is  forbidden ;  there  is  to  be 
only  as  much  minted  money  as  is  required 
for  daily  exchange.  In  the  case  of  marriage, 
dowries  shall  neither  be  given  nor  accepted. 
The  reasonable  statesman  will  not  bother 
himself  about  the  political  ideas  of  the  mob. 
The  mob  demands  a  State  which  shall  be  as 
great  and  rich  as  possible,  have  gold  and 
silver  in  abundance,  and  possess  the  most 
extensive  dominion  over  land  and  sea.  They 
will  perhaps  demand,  at  the  same  time,  that 
the  State  shall  also  be  virtuous  and  happy. 
But  both  these  demands  together  cannot 
be    compHed    with.     One    can    have    either 


96      SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

wealth  and  power,  or  virtue  and  happiness. 
Wealth  and  virtue  are  never  to  be  found 
together.  "  I  can  never  assent  to  the  doctrine 
that  the  rich  man  will  be  happy.  A  man  who 
spends  on  noble  objects  and  acquires  wealth 
by  just  means  only,  can  hardly  be  remarkable 
for  riches,  any  more  than  he  could  be  very 
poor.  Our  statement  then  is  true  that  the 
very  rich  are  not  good  "  (Book  V.).  If  the 
government  be  good,  then  no  excessively 
rich  people  will  exist  in  the  State,  and  where 
there  is  no  foolish  wealth  there  will  be  no 
mean  poverty,  for  the  former  creates  the 
latter  (Book  V.). 

Plato's  legislation  and  proposals  for  reform 
relate  to  the  Hellenes  in  general,  and,  so  far 
as  the  formation  of  a  ruling  caste  is  concerned, 
to  the  noble  class  of  Hellas.  With  Plato  one 
may  really  speak  of  a  Hellenist  nation.  This 
nation  is  to  be  as  united  and  solid  as  possible 
in  regard  to  property  relations.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  is  to  be  classified  in  respect  to  intel- 
lectual and  moral  capacities.  The  intellectual 
and  cultured  nobles  are  to  rule,  to  lead,  and 
to  make  laws;  the  farmers  and  handworkers 
are  to  follow  their  pursuits  dutifully,  to  avoid 
all   pre-occupation,    so   that    each    of    them 


COMMUNISTIC   THEORIES    IN   ATHENS     97 

confines  himself  to  his  own  calUng,  in  which  he 
can  be  proficient.     Moreover,  the  Hellenes  are 
not  to  undertake  any  heavy  tasks  of  manual 
labour,  or  any  mean  services,  but  to  leave 
these    to   immigrant    foreigners    and    slaves. 
The   Hellenes   are   to   devote   themselves   to 
their  duties  as  citizens,  and  the  higher  pursuits. 
In  the  Laws  Plato  lays  the  chief  emphasis 
on  the  removal  of  the  sharp  economic  antagon- 
isms ;  in  the  Republic  he  is  principally  occupied 
with  the  education   and  mode  of  living  of 
the  philosopher  kings,  the  officials  and  the 
warriors.     A  superficial  reading  of  the  RepithUc 
gives  the  impression — which  is,  in  fact,  shared 
by   many   writers — that    Plato   recommends 
communism  solely  for  these  upper  sections, 
and  leaves  the  remaining  class  of  the  people 
in  the  old  conditions.     This  interpretation, 
however,    is    wholly    erroneous.     From    the 
quotations  we  have  given  above    it  is  quite 
clear   that  Plato  advocated  communism  for 
all  Hellenes.     Otherwise,  there  would  be  no 
point  in  the  entire  social  criticism  which  he 
levels,  in  both  his  works,  against  the  economic, 
political  and  moral  conditions  of  his  country. 
Plato  was  an  inspired  Lycurgus ;   the  latter 
was  concerned   only  with    his    local    State 


98      SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

(Sparta),  whereas  the  former  was  for  the 
Hellenic  nation.  The  rest  of  the  Hellenic 
States  were  as  foreign  to  Lycurgus  as  any 
community  in  Asia  or  Africa.  For  Plato 
the  Hellenic  States  collectively  were  only  a 
constituent  part  of  the  Hellenic  nation ;  in  his 
eyes  the  Peloponnesian  War  was  a  civil  war. 
Both  legislators,  however,  were  unable  to 
conceive  of  a  state  of  humanity  without  war, 
or  an  international  brotherhood.  For  Plato 
those  who  were  not  Hellenes  were  barbarians, 
a  lower  species  of  mankind,  for  whom  it 
were  an  honour  and  advantage  to  be  ruled 
by  the  Hellenes.  The  Stoics  were  the  first 
to  spread  among  the  Hellenes  the  idea  of 
the  equality  of  the  human  race. 

4.  Aristotle  versus  Plato  and  Phaleas. 

Aristotle  was  anti-communist  and  an 
opponent  of  the  natural  rights  theory.  His 
Politics  is  the  work  of  an  unusually  prudent 
thinker,  experienced  in  statecraft,  a  man  who 
was  averse  from  all  revolutions,  all  extreme 
reforms,  and  even  all  violent  party  struggles. 
He  regarded  the  establishment  and  mainten- 
ance of  a  balance  of  power  in  the  State  as  the 
chief  task  of  a  statesman.     The  citizens  in 


COMMUNISTIC   THEORIES   IN   ATHENS    99 

the  State  must  be  neither  too  rich  and  power- 
ful, nor  too  poor  and  weak,  for  the  State  is 
endangered  by  every  disproportionate  increase 
of  riches  and  poverty,  of  influence  and  impo- 
tence {Politics,  Book  V.,  where  revolutions 
and  their  causes  are  dealt  with).  Great 
inequality  moves  those  who  suffer  from  it 
to  strive  for  an  alteration  of  government, 
and  demagogues  quickly  appear  to  give  the 
watchword  of  rebellion  to  the  discontented 
masses.  Likewise,  it  causes  the  anti-social 
oligarchs  to  arrogate  all  the  power  to  them- 
selves, and  consequently  to  alter  the  con- 
stitution. Legislators,  therefore,  should  aim 
at  preventing  the  accumulation  of  excessive 
wealth  in  a  few  hands,  as  well  as  the  ascen- 
dancy of  single  persons.  He  did  not  believe 
that  slavery  was  against  nature,  or  that 
government  was  the  consequence  of  the 
corruption  of  human  nature. 

From  this  description  of  the  second  greatest 
Greek  philosopher  it  will  easily  be  understood 
that  he  was  an  opponent  of  Plato,  whose 
Republic  and  Laws,  while  not  being  prudent, 
contained  much  wisdom  and  idealism.  Aris- 
totle (Politics,  Book  11.)  argues  at  great 
length  against  the  communistic  ideas  of  his 


100    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES  IN  ANTIQUITY 

teacher,  and  displays  great  acuteness,  but 
he  indulges  at  times  in  mere  hair-splitting 
and  pedantic  word-catching.  None  the  less 
it  is  remarkable  that  Aristotle  urged  all  the 
objections  that  have  been  raised  against 
Socialism  in  all  ages.  In  his  opinion,  com- 
munism was  against  human  nature.  It  would 
be  detrimental  to  the  production  of  wealth, 
as  each  man  only  looks  after  himself,  and 
furthers  his  own  interest.  The  prospect  of 
acquiring  wealth  is  thus  an  incentive  to 
creative  labour.  Likewise,  communism 
ignores  the  increase  of  population ;  that  which 
is  a  common  concern  does  not  promote  con- 
cord, but  leads  to  contention.  Finally  :  the 
real  source  of  evil  is  not  private  property, 
but  the  inferiority  of  human  nature. 

"  Indeed  we  see  that  there  is  much  more 
quarrelling  among  those  who  have  all  things 
in  common,  though  there  are  not  many  of 
them  when  compared  with  the  vast  numbers 
who  have  private  property." 

But  eventually  Aristotle  comes  to  the 
conclusion:  "The  present  arrangement 
(society  based  on  private  property),  if  im- 
proved as  it  might  be  by  good  customs  and 
laws,  would  be  far  better  and  would  have  the 


COMMUNISTIC  THEORIES  IN  ATHENS     101 

advantages  of  both  systems.  Property  should 
be  in  a  certain  sense  common,  but  as  a  general 
rule,  private,  for,  when  everyone  has  a  distinct 
interest,  men  will  not  complain  of  one  another, 
and  they  will  make  more  progress,  because 
everyone  will  be  attending  to  his  own  busi- 
ness. And  yet  among  the  good,  and  in  respect 
of  use,  '  Friends,'  as  the  proverb  says,  '  will 
have  all  things  common.'  Even  now  there 
are  traces  of  such  a  principle,  showing  that 
it  is  not  impracticable,  but,  in  well-ordered 
States,  exists  already  to  a  certain  extent, 
and  may  be  carried  further.  For,  although 
every  man  has  his  own  property,  some  things 
he  will  place  at  the  disposal  of  his  friends, 
while  of  others  he  shares  the  use  with  them. 
The  Lacedemonians,  for  example,  use  one 
another's  slaves,  and  horses,  and  dogs,  as 
if  they  were  their  own ;  and  when  they  happen 
to  be  in  the  country,  they  appropriate  in  the 
fields  whatever  provisions  they  want.  It  is 
clearly  better  that  property  should  be  private, 
but  the  use  of  it  common;  and  the  special 
business  of  the  legislator  is  to  create  in  men 
this  benevolent  disposition"  (II.  5). 

This    concession    to   communism    on    the 
part    of  Aristotle   was   without   any   special 


102    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

significance.  It  merely  constituted  one  of  the 
measures  for  putting  down  excessive  egoism. 

There  is  Uttle  force  in  the  example  which 
he  gives  from  Sparta,  as  in  that  country  the 
citizens  had  become  accustomed  to  a  certain 
extent  to  communistic  sentiments,  through 
the  Lycurgian  legislation,  whereas  Aristotle 
rejected  the  principle  underlying  this 
legislation. 

After  attacking  Plato,  Aristotle  proceeds 
to  a  criticism  of  the  socialistic  proposals  of 
the  otherwise  unknown  Phaleas,  of  whom 
he  says  : 

"  In  the  opinion  of  some,  the  regulation 
of  property  is  the  chief  point  of  all,  that  being 
the  question  upon  which  all  revolutions  turn. 
This  danger  was  recognised  by  Phaleas  of 
Chalcedon,  who  was  the  first  to  affirm  that 
the  citizens  of  a  State  ought  to  have  equal 
possessions.  He  thought  that  in  a  new  colony 
the  equalisation  might  be  accomplished  with- 
out difficulty,  not  so  easily  when  a  State  was 
already  established ;  and  that  then  the  shortest 
way  of  compassing  the  desired  end  would  be 
for  the  rich  to  give  and  not  to  receive  marriage 
portions,  and  for  the  poor  not  to  give  but  to 
receive  them  "  (II.  7). 


COMMUNISTIC  THEORIES  IN  ATHENS    108 

Aristotle  objects  : 

"It  is  not  the  possessions  but  the  desires 
of  mankind  which  require  to  be  equaUsed, 
and  this  is  impossible,  unless  a  sufficient 
education  is  provided  by  the  State.  But 
Phaleas  will  probably  reply  that  this  is 
precisely  what  he  means  and  that,  in  his 
opinion,  there  ought  to  be  in  States,  not  only 
equal  property,  but  equal  education.  There 
are  crimes  of  which  the  motive  is  want ; 
and  for  these  Phaleas  expects  to  find  a  cure 
in  the  equalisation  of  property,  which  will 
take  away  from  a  man  the  temptation  to  be 
a  highwayman  because  he  is  hungry  or  cold. 
But  want  is  not  the  sole  incentive  to  crime; 
men  desire  to  gratify  some  passion  which 
preys  on  them,  or  they  are  eager  to  enjoy 
the  pleasures  which  are  unaccompanied  by 
pain,  and  therefore  they  commit  crimes. 
Now  what  is  the  cure  of  these  three  disorders  ? 
Of  the  first,  moderate  possessions  and  occupa- 
tion; of  the  second,  habits  of  temperance; 
as  to  the  third,  if  any  desire  pleasures  which 
depend  on  themselves,  they  will  find  the  satis- 
faction of  their  desires  nowhere  but  in  philo- 
sophy. The  fact  is  that  the  greatest  crimes 
are  caused  by  excess  and  not  by  necessity. 


104    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

Men  do  not  become  tyrants  in  order  that  they 
may  not  suffer  cold;  and  hence  great  is  the 
honour  bestowed,  not  on  him  who  kills  a 
thief,  but  on  him  who  kills  a  tyrant.  Thus 
we  see  that  the  institutions  of  Phaleas  avail 
only  against  petty  crimes.  .  .  .  The  beginning 
of  reform — declares  Aristotle  further — is  not 
so  much  to  equalise  property  as  to  train  the 
nobler  sort  of  natures  not  to  desire  more, 
and  to  prevent  the  lower  from  getting  more; 
that  is  to  say,  they  must  be  kept  down,  but 
not  ill-treated.  Besides,  the  equalisation  pro- 
posed by  Phaleas  is  imperfect;  for  he  only 
equalises  land,  whereas  a  man  may  be  rich 
also  in  slaves  and  cattle  and  money,  and  in 
the  abundance  of  what  are  called  his  movables. 
Now  either  all  these  things  must  be  equalised, 
or  some  limit  must  be  imposed  on  them,  or 
they  must  all  be  let  alone.  It  would  appear 
that  Phaleas  is  legislating  for  a  small  city 
only,  if,  as  he  supposes,  all  the  artisans  are 
to  be  public  slaves  and  not  to  form  a  part  of 
the  population  of  the  city  "  (II.  7). 

It  is  apparent  from  this  criticism  that 
Phaleas'  equality  of  possession  in  land  tended 
towards  general  State  education  and  the 
nationalisation  of  the  handworkers.     As  it  is 


COMMUNISTIC  THEORIES  IN  ATHENS     105 

aho  said  that  he  was  the  first  who  wrote  upon 
equahty  of  possessions,  he  must  have  hved 
even  before  Plato. 

5.  The  Poets  of  Social  Comedy. 

Wit,  irony  and  satire  were  among  the  most 
characteristic  gifts  of  the  lonians,  who  were  so 
richly  endowed  mentally.  All  these  qualities 
were  united  in  Aristophanes,  a  dramatic  poet 
of  magical  power  of  form.  He  lived  through 
the  Peloponesian  War,  and  witnessed  its 
tragic  end.  He  was  familiar  with  the  com- 
munistic sentiments  which  seized  hold  of  the 
dispossessed  classes  during  this  war,  and  even 
after  its  termination.  The  Athenian  catas- 
trophe shook  all  authority,  and  all  national 
cohesion.  The  Athenian  Demos,  feverishly 
groping  after  all  that  was  new,  yearned  pas- 
sionately for  some  communist  transformation 
of  society.  This  moral  condition  was  prepared 
by  the  old  traditions  of  the  Golden  Age, 
and  by  the  social  struggles  since  the  eighth 
century.  For  these  facts  no  direct  evidence 
is  forthcoming  from  the  dispossessed  classes, 
but  there  is  plenty  of  indirect  evidence,  which 
is  handed  down  to  us  in  the  social  comedies 
of    Phereakrates,    Telekleides,    Eupolis,    and 


106    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

especially  Aristophanes.  Of  the  works  of  the 
three  first-named  authors  only  fragments 
remain,  but  the  best  comedies  of  Aristophanes, 
the  most  famous  of  all,  are  preserved  intact, 
and  stand  incomparably  higher  than  the 
former.  But  they  are  still  comedies;  their 
purpose  is  to  pour  good-humoured  mockery 
upon  the  communistic  aspirations,  by  means 
of  exaggeration  and  caricature,  and  also  to 
chastise  the  plutocratic  and  imperialistic 
appetites.  Their  authors  were  conservative 
in  their  outlook,  and  ridiculed  or  deplored 
subversive  movements.  It  should  be  added 
that  antique  communism  regarded  productive 
labour  as  a  curse.  Its  aim  was  not  the 
establishment  of  an  empire  of  creative  labour, 
as  at  that  time  labour  was  synonymous  with 
slavery.  Tools  were  extremely  primitive; 
mechanical  power  did  not  yet  exist ;  the  hard 
work  was  performed  by  the  unfree,  and  was 
consequently  held  to  be  degrading. 

War  and  politics  were  regarded  as  the  special 
functions  of  the  free  citizens.  This  signified 
that  the  free  citizens  formed  a  ruling  class, 
and  not  a  democracy.  We  saw  this  to  be  the 
case  when  we  dealt  with  the  Platonic  State. 
Free  and  impoverished  citizens  conceived  their 


COMMUNISTIC  THEORIES  IN  ATHENS    107 

salvation  to  be  found  in  the  emancipation  from 
physical  labour.  Consequently,  their  com- 
munism often  took  the  shape  of  desires  for  a 
sluggard's  paradise.  The  more  I  have  studied 
the  life  of  antiquity,  the  clearer  it  has  become 
to  me  that  the  moral  and  political  collapse  of 
the  old  world  was  due  chiefly  to  slavery — in 
short,  to  unfree  labour,  to  the  despising  of 
productive  activity,  and  the  resultant  stagna- 
tion of  the  technology  of  labour.  The  social 
comedies  which  we  are  to  deal  with  now  are 
directed  against  the  dreams  of  idleness,  the 
desires  for  an  opulent  life  without  toil,  which 
the  Athenians  cherished,  and  which  became 
more  urgent  with  the  relaxation  which  fol- 
lowed upon  the  catastrophic  defeat  of  Athens 
in  the  year  404. 

Let  us  take  first  Phereakrates,  Telekleides 
and  Eupolis,  as  they  preceded  Aristophanes 
in  point  of  time,  and  were  also  less  important. 
These  authors  attacked  the  sluggard  dreams 
of  the  discontented  Athenians,  hungering  for 
innovations,  as  well  as  the  exaggerated 
accounts  of  the  Golden  Age.  The  most 
typical  of  the  comedies  of  Phereakrates  was 
the  Persians.  The  Greeks  looked  upon  Persia 
as  a  land  of  golden  mountains,  the  possession 


108    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

of  which  would  faciHtate  the  reahsation  of 
their  sluggard's  ideal.  Two  figures  appear  : 
riches  and  poverty.  The  latter  exhorts  man- 
kind to  labour  and  self-control  as  the  sources 
of  all  blessings.  The  embodiment  of  riches 
makes  reply  : 

"  What  do  we  want  with  all  your  science 
of  yoked  oxen  and  ploughs,  of  sowing  and 
mowing  and  hedging?  You  have  already 
heard  that  steaming  broth  flows  through  the 
streets,  and  lard  and  fine  dumplings  are  con- 
veyed to  us  from  the  sources  of  wealth.  Who 
likes  may  fill  his  dish  to  the  brim.  And  all 
the  trees  on  the  hillsides  will  not  bear  leaves, 
but  sausages  and  tender  baked  thrushes." 

Eupolis  describes  in  the  Golden  Age  the 
restoration  of  the  old  vanished  happiness. 
The  theme  is  similar  to  the  Persians  of 
Phereakrates.  Two  speakers  appear;  one 
defends  the  utility  of  poverty  and  abstinence 
as  incentive  and  means  to  the  attainment  of 
happiness,  while  the  other  defends  the  beauty 
of  wealthy  idleness  : 

'*  Listen  now  to  me  :  I  will,  on  the  con- 
trary, introduce  into  the  warm  baths  of  my 
friends  water  from  the  sea,  by  means  of  con- 
duits supported  on  pillars.     Thus  it  will  flow 


COMMUNISTIC  THEORIES  IN  ATHENS     109 

into  everyone's  tub.  When  it  is  full,  he  will 
say,  '  Stop.'  " 

In  a  similar  fashion  Telekleides,  in  his 
comedy,  A  mphyktyonen,  ridiculed  the  sluggard's 
dreams  of  the  Hellenic  proletariat  and  slaves. 
Amphyktyon,  an  ancient  legendary  king  of 
Athens,  comes  back  to  the  upper  world,  and 
brings  peace  and  happiness  to  his  fellow- 
citizens  : 

"  Above  all,  peace  reigned  in  the  land  every 
day,  like  air  and  water.  The  earth  did  not 
yield  fear  nor  sorrow,  but  good  things  in  abun- 
dance. Purple  wine  foamed  in  the  brooks. 
Fishes  followed  men  into  their  houses,  fried 
themselves  on  the  pans,  and  laid  themselves 
on  the  table,  and  mounted  the  splendid  plates. 
Soup  streamed  through  the  town,  and  roasted 
legs  of  mutton  danced;  sauce  trickles  down 
from  the  eaves ;  the  hungry  may  tarry  awhile 
and  fill  themselves  with  good  things.  Lard 
cakes  are  despised.  And  the  men  were  a 
strong  race,  like  giants  sprung  from  the 
earth." 

6.  Aristophanes. 

Aristophanes  was  of  quite  a  different  calibre. 
With  a  sure  touch  he  penetrated  into  the  entire 


110    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

life  of  Athens,  showed  us  meetings,  poHtical 
struggles,  economic  aspirations,  plutocratic 
ambition,  and  a  women's  parliament  manu- 
facturing Utopias.  The  whole  dimensions  of 
the  almost  unique  Ionian  genius,  but  also  the 
defects  of  ancient  civilisation,  appear  before 
our  eyes,  sketched  by  one  who  was  an  intel- 
lectual aristocrat,  who  had  no  sympathy  at 
all,  either  for  the  turbulent  economic  and  cos- 
mopolitan activity  of  the  plutocracy,  or  for 
the  strivings  of  the  dispossessed  for  extreme 
equality.  The  ideal  of  Aristophanes  seems  to 
have  been  similar  to  that  of  Aristotle.  From 
this  opposition  to  his  age  arose  the  satire, 
the  deliberate  mockery,  the  graceful  irony 
which  characterise  his  comedies.  Of  all  the 
comedies  of  Aristophanes,  which  treat  satiri- 
cally the  cosmopolitan  capitalist  politicians, 
the  Sophists,  the  mania  for  law-suits,  the 
cloud  cuckoo  town,  and  the  communists,  we 
are  here  only  concerned  with  the  Ecclesiazuses 
(the  Parliament  of  Women,  played  393)  and 
Plutos  (played  388). 

The  contents  of  the  first  may  be  summarised 
as  follows  :  the  politics  of  the  men  has  led 
to  the  collapse  of  the  flourishing  Athenian 
Republic  :  the  Peloponnesian  War  ended  (404) 


COMMUNISTIC  THEORIES  IN  ATHENS     111 

with  the  complete  capitulation  of  Athens. 
The  women  had  suffered  much  during  the  long 
war,  and  their  lot  was  rendered  worse  by  the 
deplorable  consequences  of  the  collapse.  They 
resolved  therefore  to  depose  the  men  as  the 
ruHng  sex,  and  to  take  the  reins  of  government 
into  their  own  hands. 

In  the  night  the  women  steal  away  from 
their  husbands,  dress  themselves  as  men  and 
summon  a  Parliament  where  female  orators 
appear  and  make  proposals  for  the  complete 
reform  of  the  country.  Women,  they  say,  are 
economically  more  efficient  and  circumspect 
than  men,  and  will  be  able  to  steer  the  State 
into  the  proper  course  and  to  maintain  it. 
The  leader  of  this  revolution  was  named 
Praxagora  and  her  husband's  name  was 
Blepyros.  A  debate  arose  between  the  two. 
The  woman  said :  "I  beg  for  order  and 
attention.  Nobody  is  to  interrupt  me  until 
I  have  finished  my  speech.  I  have  weighed 
and  considered  the  trend  of  my  scheme.  The 
principle  which  I  want  to  see  applied  is  :  all 
ought  to  be  equal,  all  ought  to  enjoy  wealth 
and  pleasures  on  an  equal  footing.  It  should 
no  longer  be  tolerated  that  one  is  rich,  and 
another  poor ;   that  one  possesses  broad  lands. 


112    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

and  another  not  sufficient  to  enable  him  to 
have  his  own  tomb;  that  one  has  a  hundred 
servants,  and  another  none  at  all.  I  intend 
to  improve  and  reform  all  this.  All  ought  to 
participate  freely  and  equally  in  the  blessings  ; 
one  mode  of  life,  one  system  for  all  mankind. 
Blepyros  :  And  how  will  you  make  all  this 
come  to  pass  ?  Praxagora  :  First  of  all,  steps 
are  to  be  taken  to  transfer  to  the  possession 
of  the  whole  of  society  all  silver,  all  pieces  of 
land  and  other  kinds  of  property;  this  will 
constitute  a  public  fund ;  out  of  this  fund  we 
will,  as  good  housewives,  feed  you  men,  clothe 
and  look  after  you.  Blepyros  :  As  far  as  the 
land  is  concerned,  I  understand  your  proposal, 
as  land  cannot  be  concealed.  But  how  are 
you  going  to  socialise  gold  and  silver? 
Praxagora :  Everybody  will  be  obliged  to 
bring  their  property  into  the  treasury  house. 
Blepyros  :  Suppose  the  rich  should  hold  things 
back;  they  cannot  be  made  to  comply  by 
means  of  an  oath,  for  they  will  even  perjure 
themselves  and  deceive  the  State.  How 
otherwise  have  they  acquired  their  wealth  ? 
Praxagora  :  Agreed ;  but  their  property  will 
immediately  become  useless  on  their  hands, 
for  want  will  exist  no  longer ;   everybody  will 


COMMUNISTIC  THEORIES  IN  ATHENS     113 

be  able  to  have  what  he  may  desire,  even 
without  money  :  nuts,  chestnuts,  bread,  cloth- 
ing, wine,  flowers,  fish.  All  these  things  may 
be  taken  from  the  public  stores.  What  would 
be  the  object,  then,  of  accumulating  money 
in  private  hands  ?  Why  should  the  rich  want 
to  retain  any  longer  the  property  acquired  by 
fraud  ?  Blepyros :  Do  you  know  that  the 
people  who  own  the  most  property  are  the 
greatest  rascals  and  cannot  refrain  from  steal- 
ing and  lying  ?  Praxagora  :  All  this  is  quite 
true  when  we  look  at  the  past ;  under  the  old 
order,  which  we  are  now  abolishing,  this  was 
really  the  case.  But  what  is  the  use  of  private 
property  now  that  everything  is  common? 
Blepyros :  Suppose  a  young  man  courts  a 
maiden,  or  desires  a  woman,  he  will  have  to 
bring  presents  ?  Praxagora  :  Not  at  all :  all 
women  and  men  will  be  free  and  in  common ; 
marriage  or  other  compulsion  will  not  exist. 
Blepyros :  But  what  will  happen  when  a 
beautiful  girl  is  courted  by  several  men,  some 
handsome  and  some  ugly  ?  Praxagora  :  Of 
course,  a  beautiful  girl  will  have  many  suitors, 
some  handsome  and  some  ugly,  but  before 
one  is  justified  in  courting  a  beautiful  girl  he 
will  have  to  sleep  with  an  ugly  girl.     Blepyros  : 


114    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES  IN  ANTIQUITY 

Good.  The  girls  will  no  longer  have  to  fear 
that  they  will  remain  old  maidens  all  their 
lives?  But  what  will  happen  to  the  men? 
It  may  be  assumed  that  the  maidens  will 
grant  their  favours  only  to  the  handsome  men. 
How  will  the  ugly  men  get  on  ?  Praxagora  : 
The  State  will  regulate  the  amorous  lives  of 
the  maidens.  By  the  side  of  the  young, 
handsome  and  well-developed  men  will  be 
ranged  the  small,  misshapen  and  undersized 
men.  And  before  the  maidens  receive  per- 
mission to  pair  off  with  their  lovers,  they  will 
be  obliged  to  grant  their  love  to  the  men  who 
have  been  treated  by  nature  in  a  step-motherly 
manner.  All  prostitution  will  be  abolished; 
the  degraded  women  will  be  left  to  the  slaves, 
so  that  the  most  vigorous  men  shall  be  reserved 
for  the  citizenesses.  Blepyros  :  How  shall  we 
be  able  to  know  our  children  ?  Praxagora  : 
They  will  never  be  recognised.  All  children 
will  belong  to  all  adults.  Blepyros  :  And  who 
will  do  the  work  of  the  community  ?  Praxa- 
gora :  The  slaves  will  attend  to  this  work." 

The  debate  is  continued,  and  Praxagora 
sketches  the  future  State,  in  which  all  things 
will  be  in  common,  and  all  will  be  free  and 
equal  and  independent;   in  which  all  private 


COMMUNISTIC  THEORIES  IN  ATHENS    115 

undertakings  will  be  amalgamated  into  one 
great  single  property,  in  which  all  class  dis- 
tinctions, all  restrictions  and  all  measures  of 
constraint  will  be  abolished  for  ever.  Like- 
wise there  will  be  no  more  courts  of  justice 
and  election  halls.  These  will  be  transformed 
into  dining  halls,  where  the  finest  dainties  may 
be  had.  In  alphabetical  order  the  citizens  will 
be  assigned  their  dining  numbers,  and  their 
dining  halls.  Common  meals  will  be  invested 
with  solemnity ;  in  an  elevated  frame  of  mind 
each  person  will  leave  them,  with  torch  in 
hand,  and  a  floral  crown  in  the  hair,  and  when 
they  then  wander  through  the  streets,  girls 
and  women  will  invite  the  men  to  themselves, 
and  solicit  them  to  enjoy  their  beauty. 

These  debates,  carried  on  in  flowery,  witty 
and  extravagant  language,  outline  an  attrac- 
tive earthly  paradise.  It  goes  without  saying 
that  Aristophanes  shows  that  this  sluggard's 
paradise  will  fail  ludicrously.  The  tragi- 
comical developments  which  accompany  the 
regulation  of  amorous  life  and  the  neglect  of 
public  affairs  render  existence  in  the  future 
State  impossible.  The  young  people  are  not 
able  to  approach  their  beloved  maidens,  as 
they  are  made  wholly  unhappy  by  the  sexual 


116    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

tribute  which  they  are  obHged  first  to  pay  to 
the  old  ladies  and  the  faded  spinsters.  And 
the  citizens,  who,  attracted  by  the  festive 
dining  halls,  proceed  to  their  meals  with 
highly  raised  expectations,  are  only  able  to 
satisfy  their  hunger  when  they  take  with 
them  something  from  home. 

In  the  Ecclesiazuses  Aristophanes  ridicules 
the  communistic  enthusiasts.  In  Plutos,  his 
last  comedy,  he  scourges  the  insatiable  rich, 
the  unbridled  lust  for  wealth.  The  problem 
dealt  with  here  is  an  old  yet  ever  new  one; 
why  are  the  evildoers  rich  and  the  virtuous 
poor?  The  discussions  are  extraordinarily 
copious.  The  underlying  idea  is  :  Plutos,  the 
god  of  wealth,  is  blind  and  does  not  know 
what  he  does.  To  the  question  of  the  poor 
but  virtuous  Chremylos,  as  to  why  he  dis- 
tributes his  favours  so  unequally,  Plutos 
answers  :  "  Zeus  has  made  me  blind.  The 
supreme  god  is  jealous  of  mankind;  when  I 
was  very  young,  I  used  to  boast  that  I  would 
visit  only  the  wise  and  good.  Consequently, 
he  made  me  blind,  so  that  I  should  not 
know  whom  I  would  be  visiting.  Chremylos  : 
Wouldst  thou  avoid  the  wicked  if  thou  couldst 
see  ?     Plutos  :  Yes,  that  I  would.     I  would 


COMMUNISTIC  THEORIES  IN  ATHENS    117 

only  visit  the  good.  All  say  to  me  that  they 
are  good,  but  when  I  go  to  them  and  make 
them  rich,  there  is  no  end  to  their  wickedness. 
Chremylos  :  Thus  it  is.  Men  can  have  enough 
of  everything — bread,  sweetmeats,  figs — but 
never  sufficient  wealth.  If  a  man  have  thirteen 
talents,  he  wants  sixteen;  let  him  have  six- 
teen, and  he  desires  twenty,  otherwise  he  says 
life  is  miserable.  Wealth  is  the  most  cowardly 
thing." 

Chremylos  advises  Plutos  to  betake  himself 
to  the  temple  of  ^Esculapius  (the  healing  god) 
and  to  pass  a  night  there;  in  this  temple 
he  would  be  cured  of  his  blindness.  Plutos 
follows  this  advice,  and  is  able  to  see.  Now 
poverty  is  to  be  driven  out  of  Hellas.  The 
personification  of  poverty  appears  at  this 
juncture,  and  desires  to  prove  that  its  exist- 
ence is  necessary.  It  contends  with  Chremylos 
and  exclaims  :  "  Thou  wilt  drive  me  out  of 
Hellas?  Thou  believest  that  by  this  means 
thou  wilt  bring  the  greatest  blessings  to  man- 
kind ?  In  reality,  thou  wilt  inflict  great  harm 
upon  mankind,  if  thou  wilt  make  the  good 
rich."  Chremylos  contests  this  assertion  in  a 
long  speech,  and  shows  how  just  it  would  be 
if  the  wicked  were  poor  and  the  good  were 


118    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

rich.  To  which  Poverty  makes  reply  :  "If 
all  were  rich,  who  would  then  take  the  trouble 
to  acquire  science  and  knowledge  of  the  arts  ? 
And  if  these  disappeared,  who  would  build 
our  ships,  till  the  soil,  and  carry  on  industry  ? 
Chremylos  :  You  talk  nonsense,  for  our  ser- 
vants shall  toil  at  all  these  things  for  us. 
Poverty :  Whence  then  will  you  have  ser- 
vants ?  Chremylos  :  There  would  be  sufficient 
people  who  would  bring  us  slaves  from  abroad, 
if  we  paid  them  well  for  doing  so.  Poverty  : 
But  who  would  expose  themselves  to  the 
dangers  of  kidnapping,  if  without  this  they 
could  be  rich  enough  ?  Do  you  imagine  that 
when  all  have  plenty  of  money,  they  will  still 
be  obliged  to  work  themselves,  in  order  to 
create  the  amenities  of  existence?  your  gold 
and  silver  will  not  even  help  them.  To-day, 
the  rich  can  procure  everything  because  there 
are  the  poor,  who  produce  the  various  com- 
modities which  render  life  possible  and  agree- 
able for  you.  You  must  not  confuse  poverty 
with  misery ;  mankind  are  not  to  be  miserable, 
neither  are  they  to  live  in  superfluity  and 
lose  the  incentive  to  vigorous  labour.  You 
say  yourself  that  the  poor  are  better  men  than 
the  rich." 


COMMUNISTIC  THEORIES  IN  ATHENS     119 

Chremylos  and  his  friends  are  disconcerted 
by  these  arguments.  Then  Plutos  appears 
cured  of  his  blindness.  He  greets  the  Sun, 
the  beautiful  Attic  country,  and  exclaims  : 
**  I  am  ashamed  of  my  past,  and  I  blush  for 
the  company  I  have  kept  for  so  long,  while 
I  was  avoiding  the  men  who  deserved  my 
friendship.  Henceforth  I  will  follow  the 
opposite  road,  and  show  mankind  that  when 
I  tarried  with  knaves  and  rogues  it  was 
against  my  wishes." 

The  result  of  this  change  is  extremely 
remarkable.  The  wicked  lose  their  wealth. 
Now  all  begin  to  visit  Plutos,  but  the  way  to 
him  lies  through  honesty  and  wisdom.  And 
the  finest  witticism  comes  at  the  end  of  the 
comedy.  The  priests  complain  that  hence- 
forth they  will  be  obliged  to  starve.  One 
priest  laments,  "  Since  Plutos  has  been  able 
to  see,  I  have  been  exposed  to  hunger, 
although  I  am  a  priest  of  Zeus.  Before  this, 
when  all  men  were  rich,  they  used  to  come  to 
the  temple  and  sacrifice.  If  a  merchant  was 
saved  from  any  danger,  from  the  risks  of 
travel,  or  from  penal  laws  he  betook  himself 
to  the  temple,  and  brought  presents ;  or  when 
people  made  vows,  they  called  in  the  priests. 


120    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

Now  nobody  comes.  I  am  thinking  of  leaving 
the  service  of  Zeus.  All  are  good,  wise  and 
rich." 

The  meaning  of  this  comedy  can  only  be 
expressed  in  the  words  of  Goethe  :  "  Let  us 
only  improve  ourselves,  and  everything  will 
soon  be  better."  And  this  is  also  the  funda- 
mental idea  of  Aristotle. 

7.  Zeno — Communistic  Descriptions.     Egypt 
under  the  Ptolemies. 

The  communist  idea,  or  at  least  the  idea 
of  equality,  must  have  been  very  strong  in 
Hellas  when  an  intellect  of  so  individualist 
and  middle-class  a  type  as  that  of  Aristotle 
was  obliged  to  make  concessions  to  it.  Then 
comes  the  Stoic  school,  who,  as  already  ex- 
plained in  our  introduction,  propagated  the 
principles  of  Anarchist  communism  and  of 
international  brotherhood.  Of  their  founder 
Zeno  little  is  known.  His  writings  are  lost, 
save  for  a  few  fragments  from  which  it  appears 
that  he  regarded  natural  law  as  the  sole  valid 
guiding  principle  of  life.  Thus  :  no  political 
government,  no  courts  of  justice,  no  man-made 
laws,  but  goods  in  common,  equality  of  the 
sexes,  brotherhood  of  all  mankind. 


COMMUNISTIC  THEORIES  IN  ATHENS     121 

Two  politico-geographical  events  contributed 
to  the  spread  of  Platonic  ideas  by  the  Stoa. 
First,  the  expedition  of  Alexander  the  Great 
to  anterior  Asia  and  India  (334-323),  which, 
while  it  did  not  lead  to  the  establishment  of 
a  permanent  world  empire,  opened  up  to  the 
Hellenic  language  and  culture  the  lands  from 
the  Adria  to  the  Indus,  and  from  the  Danube 
to  the  Nile.  Secondly,  the  subsequent  ap- 
pearance of  the  Roman  Empire,  which  added 
still  further  territory  in  the  west  and  north, 
and  which  permitted  the  growth  of  uniform 
and  universal  mental  tendencies.  In  the 
Roman  Empire  the  universal  intellectual  force 
was  Hellenism,  in  which  the  philosophy  of 
Plato  and  the  social  ethics  of  the  Stoa  pre- 
dominated. To  hold  property  in  common 
was  esteemed  the  highest  social  virtue,  and 
pleasure  was  found  in  delineating  social-reform 
legislators  and  kings,  as  well  as  communist 
thinkers  and  settlements.  We  find  these  ten- 
dencies with  Philo  and  Josephus  touching  the 
Essenes,  and  with  Plutarch  respecting  the 
Spartan  legislators  and  reformers. 

There  was  a  similar  readiness  to  describe 
unknown  communistic  colonies.  Diodorus 
(about  the  middle  of  the  first  century  before 


122    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

Christ)  collected  several  of  these  accounts  in 
his  Historical  Library  (Book  II.  chaps.  55-60, 
Book  V.  chaps.  41-46).  We  read  there  of 
some  peculiar  men  who  were  discovered  upon 
an  island  in  the  Indian  Ocean  by  a  certain 
Yambulos  and  his  friend,  while  on  a  voyage 
of  business  to  the  spice  lands.  "  The  inhabit- 
ants (of  admirable  physical  proportions)  live 
united  according  to  kinship,  in  families  and 
tribes,  but  never  more  than  400  in  one 
community.  They  dwell  on  pastures  and 
meadows,  as  the  country  provides  them  with 
abundant  sustenance;  the  soil  of  the  island 
is  excellent,  the  air  being  of  the  finest.  Cereal 
plants  grow  of  themselves  in  greater  abun- 
dance than  they  are  required.  There  are  also 
rich  springs,  partly  warm  for  bathing,  which 
quickly  cure  every  fatigue,  partly  cold,  of 
great  sweetness  and  healing  power.  They 
devote  much  attention  to  science,  especially 
to  astronomy.  Marriage  is  not  known  there, 
and  the  children  who  are  born  are  brought 
up  in  common,  and  loved  by  all  equalty. 
While  they  are  small,  it  often  happens  that 
the  nurses  exchange  their  charges  so  that 
mothers  do  not  know  their  own  children. 
Consequently,   there  is  no   ambition   among 


COMMUNISTIC  THEORIES  IN  ATHENS     123 

these  people,  and  they  hve  without  internal 
unrest  and  rebellions,  and  put  concord  above 
everything  else.  Everybody  observes  a  tem- 
perate mode  of  living,  and  only  consume 
as  much  food  as  their  needs  require.  The 
cookery  is  simple;  special  arts  of  cookery 
and  of  making  sauces  and  varieties  of  sausages 
are  unknown  to  them."  Here  we  find  the 
ideal  state  of  Plato  realised. 

Another  account  of  Diodorus  relates  to  State 
socialism.  It  is  taken  from  the  Greek  writer 
Euhomeros,  a  contemporary  of  Zeno,  who  in 
his  Sacred  Records  seeks  to  demonstrate  that 
the  gods  were  not  supernatural  beings,  but 
heroic  men,  who  were  deified  by  mankind. 
Euhomeros  professes  to  have  obtained  this 
knowledge  from  inscriptions  in  the  island  of 
Hiera  (either  off  the  Southern  Arabian  or  the 
Southern  Egyptian  coast) .  Next  he  describes 
the  institutions  of  this  island,  which  corre- 
spond to  the  ideal  of  Egyptian  State  socialism. 
The  soil  of  the  country  is  divided  among  the 
inhabitants,  and  the  most  fertile  tract  is  the 
share  of  the  king.  The  people  who  dwell  on 
the  island  are  called  Panchsens.  The  whole 
of  the  citizens  are  divided  into  three  classes  : 
the  first  class  are  the  priests,  to  which  class  the 


124    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

handworkers  also  belong;  the  second  are  the 
tillers  of  the  soil;  the  third  are  the  warriors 
and  shepherds.  The  priests  have  the  supreme 
direction  of  all  things ;  the  peasants  cultivate 
the  soil,  and  bring  in  the  produce  to  the 
common  store ;  in  a  similar  fashion  the  shep- 
herds supply  the  sacrificial  animals  and  the 
other  fruits  of  the  flock  to  the  community, 
everything  being  most  exact  as  to  number 
and  weight.  For  it  is  a  law  that  nobody  may 
himself  own  more  than  one  house  and  one 
garden;  all  the  products  and  returns  are 
received  by  the  priests,  who  equitably  allot 
to  each  person  his  share;  they  themselves, 
however,  receive  a  twofold  share  "  (Book  V. 
chaps.  41-46). 

This  description  of  the  Panchaens  seems  to 
be  an  idealisation  of  the  condition  of  Egypt 
under  the  Hellenic  administration.  Alexander 
the  Great  also  conquered  Egypt  and  besieged 
the  capital,  Alexandria,  which  had  become  a 
chief  centre  of  Hellenic  culture.  After  his 
death  (323)  the  Macedonian  world  empire 
dissolved  into  numerous  small  States,  and 
into  three  great  States  :  Macedonia  (with 
Greece),  Syria  (anterior  Asia)  and  Egypt, 
where  Alexander's  leading  generals  founded 


COMMUNISTIC  THEORIES  IN  ATHENS     125 

dynasties.  In  Egypt  the  Ptolemies  reigned 
in  the  place  of  the  old  Pharaohs.  In  the 
Ptolemaic  period,  the  property  relations  de- 
veloped on  the  following  lines  :  the  king  or 
the  State  was  the  sole  proprietor  of  the  land 
and  soil.  Private  property  existed  only  in 
houses,  gardens  and  vineyards,  while  the  whole 
of  the  cornfields  were  royal  or  State  property, 
and  leased  to  the  peasants;  the  lease  was 
hereditary  or  for  a  term,  but  was  in  any 
case  accompanied  by  certain  conditions.  The 
Ptolemies  confiscated  the  priestly  and  feudal 
possessions,  which  had  survived  from  former 
times,  and  the  priests  and  feudal  lords  thence- 
forth became  part  of  the  order  of  officials  who 
administered  the  system  of  leasing  taxation. 
The  legal  position  of  the  peasant  was  a  good 
one,  but  the  more  urgent  the  fiscal  exigencies 
became,  the  more  arbitrary  became  the  atti- 
tude of  the  State  towards  the  agricultural 
population,  until  they  were  eventually  de- 
graded into  a  state  of  servitude.  (Rostowzew, 
Studien  zur  Geschichte  des  romischen  Kolonats, 
pp.  II,  15,  58,  61.) 


126    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES  IN  ANTIQUITY 

8.  The  Downfall  of  Greece. 

The  Peloponnesian  War  and  the  consequent 
struggles  of  the  separate  States  (Sparta, 
Athens  and  Thebes)  for  supremacy  (404-362) 
resulted  in  the  destruction  of  all  the  national 
independence  of  this  poetic,  philosophical  and 
experimenting  community.  Its  misfortune 
was  its  inability  to  establish  a  uniform 
Hellenic  empire.  It  fell  under  the  dominion 
of  the  Macedonians,  and  about  the  middle  of 
the  second  century  B.C.,  together  with  the 
latter,  under  the  sway  of  the  Romans. 

During  all  these  external  wars,  vigorous 
social  struggles  broke  out  at  home  between 
the  haves  and  the  have-nots,  between  social 
democrats  and  plutocratic  oligarchies;  redis- 
tribution of  the  soil,  relief  of  debtors,  banish- 
ments and  massacres  were  frequent  occur- 
rences in  periods  of  acute  crisis.  The  hatred 
between  the  two  classes  was  inextinguish- 
able. A  glimpse  of  it  may  be  obtained 
from  Aristotle's  indication  that  there  were 
oligarchies  in  Hellas,  in  which  the  supreme 
authorities  swore  the  following  oath  upon 
entering  into  office  :  "I  will  be  an  enemy  of 
the  people,  and  will  contrive  to  inflict  as  much 


COMMUNISTIC  THEORIES  IN  ATHENS     127 

damage  upon  them  as  possible  "  (Politics, 
5,  9,  11).  Isocrates  testifies  that  the  senti- 
ments of  the  rich  were  so  bitter  that  they 
would  sooner  throw  their  belongings  into  the 
sea  than  give  them  to  the  poor.  What  the 
ideas  of  the  Demos  were  we  have  seen  from 
Plato,  Aristophanes  and  the  other  social  poets, 
for  all  these  thinkers  and  poets  have  their 
roots  not  only  in  the  economic  and  political 
conditions  of  their  time,  but  also  in  the 
moral  condition  and  in  the  complaints  of 
the  struggling  dispossessed  sections  of  the 
population.  The  Hellenes  were  plain-spoken, 
and  they  were  endowed  in  rich  measure  with 
speech  which  expressed  their  thoughts  and 
emotions.  They  were  remarkably  free  from 
hypocrisy.  This  was  one  of  the  impediments 
which  unfitted  them  to  pursue  an  imperialist 
policy,  to  found  a  great  empire  or  to  pre- 
serve it. 


CHAPTER  V 

ROME 

I.  Character  of  Roman  Historical  Writing. 

Roman  history  until  300  B.C.  is  for  the 
greater  part  fabulous;  it  is  based  on  oral 
traditions,  and  the  Roman  archives  were 
destroyed  in  the  year  390  B.C.  by  the  invasion 
of  the  Celtic  races.  It  was  not  until  the 
second  century  B.C.  that  Roman  annalists 
appeared,  under  the  literary  influence  of  the 
Greeks,  and  a  century  later,  Roman  historians 
who  wrote  the  history  of  their  country,  first 
in  the  Greek,  and  then  in  the  Latin  languages, 
but  always  with  a  conservative,  patriotic  and 
anti-revolutionary  bias.  Even  the  Greek 
writers  like  Polybius,^  Plutarch  ^  and  Appian,^ 

1  Polybius  wrote  ac  the  end  of  the  second  century  B.C. 

2  Plutarch  composed  in  the  second  century  a.d.  a 
series  of  comparative  Greek  and  Roman  biographies  of 
great  men  of  both  peoples.     His  works  are  very  readable. 

3  Appian,   a  younger  contemporary  of  Plutarch,  is 

specially   notable   for   his   description   of   the   Roman 

civil  wars. 

128 


ROME  129 

who  wrote  Roman  history  in  their  mother 
tongue,  were  swayed  by  Roman  influence. 
The  Roman  historians,  hke  Sallust,^  Livy  ^ 
and  Tacitus,^  were  seldom  just  to  reformers. 
To  revolutionary  movements  they  were  simply 
hostile  and  regarded  their  instigators  and 
leaders  as  mere  criminals.  In  national 
matters,  in  struggles  against  revolutionaries 
and  external  enemies  the  Romans  were  in- 
spired by  ruthless  egoism  and  self-righteous- 
ness, in  their  eyes  all  adversaries  of  Rome  were 
perjurers,  traitors,  violators  of  treaties  and 
disturbers  of  the  peace.  And  this  was  also 
the  opinion  of  their  Latin  historians,  who  now 
constitute  the  source  upon  which  we  must 
draw  for  our  judgment  of  the  reformers, 
revolutionaries  and  rebels  who  challenged 
Roman  traditions.  The  Greek  writers  we 
have  previously  mentioned  were,  it  is  true,  less 
disposed  to  condemn  in  the  lump  all  opponents 
of  Rome,  but  still  they  wrote  for  the  Latins, 
and  were  certainly  not  immune  from  flattery, 

^  Sallust,  a  contemporary  and  disciple  of  Julius 
Caesar,  born  86,  died  35  B.C.,  is  known  for  his  account 
of  the  rebellion  of  Catilina. 

2  Livy,  born  59,  died  17  B.C. 

2  Tacitus,  born  about  55,  died  about  120  a.d. 


130    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES  IN  ANTIQUITY 

or  they  allowed  themselves  to  be  influenced 
too  often  by  Roman  prejudices.  The  rebels 
who  suffered  most  from  this  were  Cataline 
and  Spartacus,  who  became  really  dangerous 
to  the  Romans  as  leaders  of  revolution  and 
rebellion.  Moreover,  the  Romans  were  not 
an  intellectual  people  who  could  have  found 
pure  joy  in  great  movements  and  ideas  when 
such  went  counter  to  Roman  interests. 
Among  the  Romans  we  find  no  Plato,  no 
Aristophanes  and  no  Sophocles.  Men  like 
the  Hebrew  prophets  were  quite  inconceivable 
with  the  Romans.  It  is  consequently  a  very 
difficult  task  to  write  a  revolutionary  history 
of  Rome. 

2.  Patricians  and  Plebeians. 

The  traditions  and  institutions  of  the 
Romans  imply  that  they  were  originally 
organised  into  gentes  and  tribes,  and  were 
unacquainted  with  individual  property.  At 
the  head  of  the  community,  which  originally 
did  not  extend  beyond  the  town  of  Rome, 
were  **  kings,"  that  is,  chieftains,  who  were 
at  the  same  time  captains  in  the  field,  high 
priests  and  judges.  According  to  the  legend, 
the  founder  of  the  town  of  Rome  was  Romulus, 


ROME  131 

who,  like  Cain,  was  a  fratricide.  In  very 
early  times  we  find  two  classes  there,  the 
Patricians  and  the  Plebeians,  which  were 
engaged  in  mutual  struggle. 

The  Patricians  were  substantial  peasants, 
who  occupied  all  important  positions,  and 
grew  into  the  dominant  class.  The  Plebeians 
were  small  peasants,  who,  although  free, 
were  excluded  from  political  power.  This 
antagonism  was  not  a  class  struggle;  the 
Plebeians  aspired  to  no  other  kind  of  econo- 
mic order,  and  represented  no  more  ideal 
philosophy  than  the  Patricians.  Both  classes 
were  always  ready  to  enslave  and  exploit 
other  tribes.  The  Plebeians  demanded  from 
the  Patricians  merely  equal  opportunities 
of  economic  and  political  exploitation.  Sup- 
ported by  their  political  power,  the  Patricians 
expropriated  the  greater  part  of-  the  State 
domains  {ager  fuhlicus) ;  the  Plebeians  lapsed 
into  servitude,  and  gradually  became  the 
debtors  of  the  Patricians ;  the  debt  laws  were 
harsh,  and  interest  was  high.  The  Plebeians 
demanded  a  share  in  political  power,  and 
especially  in  the  State  domains.  The  latter 
seem  to  have  been  originally  a  vestige  of 
common    property;     later    it    consisted    of 


132    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

conquered  territory,  which  was  transformed 
into  pubhc  lands. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century  the 
old  Gentile  conditions  were  so  far  disin- 
tegrated that  the  Patricians  abolished  the 
"  kings,"  and  founded  a  republic  of  nobles, 
in  which  the  most  prominent  Patricians 
arrogated  to  themselves  all  the  power  which 
still  remained  to  the  kings.  At  the  head  of 
the  republic  were  two  consuls,  who  appointed 
two  subordinate  officials  (Quastoria)  as 
directors  of  the  finances  and  the  records. 
In  times  of  necessity  and  danger  one  of  the 
consuls  appointed  a  dictator  for  a  maximum 
perico  of  six  months,  and  invested  with 
absolute  powers. 

The  antagonism  of  interests  between  the 
two  sections,  which  had  softened  to  some 
extent  during  the  epoch  of  the  "  kings," 
then  became  more  acute,  as,  in  the  meantime, 
Rome  had  made  war  upon  its  neighbours, 
and  acquired  new  State  domains,  which 
mostly  fell  to  the  Patricians.  In  the  year 
494  B.C.  the  Plebs  had  sunk  so  low  that  they 
turned  their  backs  on  their  native  city  and 
withdrew  to  the  holy  mountain,  in  order  to 
found  their  own  community.     The  Patricians, 


ROME  133 

having  constant  need  of  soldiers  for  their  war 
pohcy,   were  impelled  to  make  concessions, 
and  they  allowed  the  Plebs  to  appoint  two 
tribunes,  whose  duties  would  consist  in  pro- 
tecting the  small  peasants  from  the  arbitrary 
rule  of  the  Patrician  officials,  and  in  convening 
meetings    of    Plebeians    to    pass    resolutions 
(Plebiscites).     The  Plebiscites,  however,  had 
merely  the   value   of  resolutions   passed  by 
meetings.     They  remained  pious  wishes,  with- 
out legal  effect.     The  struggle  went  on,  not 
unaccompanied   by   bloodshed.     But   in   the 
degree  in  which  the  Patricians  developed  their 
foreign  war  policy,  and  enriched  themselves, 
they  became  more  complaisant  towards  the 
Plebeians    at    home,    as,    without    the    co- 
operation of  the  latter,  they  could  not  carry 
out    their    foreign    policy.      In    the    fourth 
century  the  Plebs  made  important  political 
and  economic  progress.     In  the  year  367  the 
legislative  projects  of  Licinius  were  adopted. 
They  considerably  relieved  the  debt  burdens  of 
the  Plebeians ;  fixed  the  maximum  appropria- 
tion of  the  State  domains  at  500  acres,  which 
would  enable  the  Plebs  to  receive  the  share 
of  the  conquered  territories;   and  appointed 
one    Plebeian    as    consul.     Further   pohtical 


134    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

concessions  were  made  from  time  to  time,  and 
in  the  year  287  the  Plebs  were  admitted  to 
complete  equaUty  of  rights.  Henceforth  they 
were  able  to  participate  in  all  the  economic 
advantages  of  conquest,  for,  during  this  en- 
tire period,  the  Patricians  did  not  cease  to 
subjugate  the  Italian  tribes,  one  after  another, 
and  to  extend  the  domination  of  Rome  over 
all  Italy. 

This  was  in  itself  a  first-class  political 
achievement,  and  it  was  chiefly  the  work 
of  the  Roman  Patricians.  These  tenacious, 
superstitious,  common-sense  and  militarily 
efficient  peasants  completed  in  Italy  a  work 
which  the  intellectual,  highly  cultivated  and 
philosophical  class  of  nobles  in  Hellas  could 
never  have  accomplished. 

Soon  after  the  unity  of  classes  had  been 
effected,  a  new  nobility  arose  out  of  the  richer 
Patricians  and  Plebeians,  which  seized  all 
the  positions  for  its  adherents.  Hence- 
forth foreign  policy  overstepped  national 
boundaries;  it  became  world  policy,  which 
at  that  time  signified  the  mastery  of  the 
Mediterranean  and  its  coasts. 


ROME  135 

3.  World  Policy  and  Dissolution, 

The  years  264  to  133  B.C.  witnessed  the  rise 
of  Rome  to  the  position  of  greatest  world 
power.  This  progress  was  accompanied  by 
a  transformation  of  the  economic  bases  of 
Rome.  Money  economy  and  speculation  sup- 
planted the  peasant  economy  which  had 
hitherto  been  prevalent.  In  the  year  269 
silver  coinage  was  introduced;  five  years 
later  the  first  Punic  War  broke  out :  the  war 
against  Carthage,  at  that  time  the  greatest 
commercial  power  in  the  Mediterranean. 
Carthage  dominated  the  North  African  coast, 
Southern  Spain,  Sardinia  and  West  Sicily. 
In  this  war,  which  lasted  from  264  to 
241,  Sicily  and  Sardinia  were  conquered  by 
Rome,  and  the  Romans  realised  the  import- 
ance of  mastery  of  the  sea;  consequently 
they  built  a  great  fleet,  which  partly  served 
the  purposes  of  war,  and  partly  the  interests 
of  commerce.  Ship-builders  and  trading 
companies  came  into  existence.  The  second 
Punic  War  (218  to  201),  in  which  the  Semitic 
general,  Hannibal,  one  of  the  greatest  military 
geniuses  of  all  time,  became  the  terror  of 
Rome,  might  have  put  an  end  to  Roman 


136    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN   ANTIQUITY 

conquests  if  the  Carthaginian  plutocracy  had 
been  more  statesmanhke,  or  the  Roman 
Senate  less  determined,  or  the  Roman  people 
less  patriotic.  These  circumstances  nullified 
the  military  achievements  of  Hannibal.^ 

Carthage  was  overthrown  and  completely 
destroyed  in  the  third  Punic  War  (149  to 
146),  with  all  the  brutal  and  hypocritical 
cruelty  of  which  the  Romans  were  capable. 
In  the  meantime,  the  Romans  had  subjugated 
Greece,  Asia  Minor  and  Spain.  A  stream  of 
precious  metals  and  slaves  had  flowed  to 
Rome  and  undermined  the  old  and  vigorous 
peasant  State. 

The  work  of  destruction  was  all  the  easier 
as  the  wars,  especially  the  second  Punic  War, 
had  destroyed  the  greater  part  of  the  old 
classes  of  Patricians  and  Plebeians.  From 
this  draining  of  strength  Rome  never  re- 
covered. When  at  the  summit  of  its  material 
power,  Rome  was  already  at  the  beginning 
of  its  moral  downfall.  The  descent  was  slow 
but  sure,  and  in  the  first  century  B.C.  its 
symptoms  became  clearly  defined. 

^  The  Roman  historian,  Livy,  expresses  this  opinion 
still  more  strongly  :  "  Not  the  Roman  people,  but  the 
disfavour  of  the  Carthaginian  Senate  defeated  Hannibal  " 
{Roman  History,  XXX.  20). 


ROME  137 

Or,  as  the  Roman  historian  Sallust  narrates  : 
"  The  victors  knew  neither  measure  nor  Umit. 
Riches  became  a  means  of  distinction  and 
glory,  power  and  influence  followed  their 
possession.  As  a  result,  the  edge  of  virtue 
was  dulled  and  poverty  was  accounted  a 
disgrace.  But  the  passion  for  defilement, 
gluttony  and  all  other  kinds  of  indulgence  had 
kept  pace  with  that  for  wealth.  Each  sex 
alike  trampled  on  their  modesty." 

The  war  favoured  the  growth  of  capitalist 
merchants  and  trading  companies,  which 
made  loans  to  the  State  and  supplied  ships, 
provisions  and  war  materials  at  exorbitant 
prices.  They  leased  the  State  domains  and 
mines  in  the  conquered  countries,  collected 
the  taxes,  and  supplied  slaves  for  large-scale 
agriculture.  Roman  capital  was  not  in- 
dustrially productive,  like  modern  European 
capital,  in  the  period  of  the  industrial 
revolution.  It  resembled  the  hyaenas  of  the 
Roman  battlefields;  it  gorged  itself  with 
the  spoils  of  the  Roman  legions  and  squeezed 
the  conquered  countries.  The  senatorial 
families  and  officials  were  drawn  into  the 
business;  the  highest  State  officials  became 
corruptible,  and  from   i6o  even  the  Senate 


138    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

was  reputed  to  be  bribable.  The  peasantry, 
which  had  been  decimated  during  the  long 
wars,  gradually  disappeared,  partly  in  con- 
sequence of  the  competition  of  the  cheap  corn, 
which  was  imported  from  the  provinces 
(conquered  territories),  partly  as  a  result  of 
being  bought  out  by  the  new  rich,  who  wished 
to  attach  to  themselves  a  noble  appendage 
in  the  shape  of  landed  property.  The  old 
peasant  farms  were  superseded  by  the  lati- 
ftmdia,  large-scale  agricultural  undertakings, 
with  much  vine  culture  and  pasturage. 

Productive  labour  was  carried  on  more  and 
more  by  slaves,  while  the  free  rural  and  urban 
workers  fell  into  unemployment,  drifted  to 
Rome,  where  they  lived  as  vagabonds  upon 
the  public  supplies  of  corn,  and  were  kept  in 
a  good  humour  by  the  public  games,  and 
were  used  as  voting  cattle.  Wealth  was 
concentrated  in  a  few  hands;  in  the  year 
104  B.C.  a  tribune  complained  that  scarcely 
2000  rich  persons  existed  in  the  whole  State. 
The  causes  of  violent  social  unrest  were  there- 
fore operative.  They  manifested  themselves 
in  two  ways  :  (i)  the  reform  movements  for 
the  restoration  of  the  peasants  (Gracchi), 
or  for  the  redistribution  of  property  (Catiline) ; 


ROME  139 

(2)    slave    insurrections,    of    which    that    of 
Spartacus  was  the  most  famous. 

4.  Reform  Struggles — Gracchus,   Catiline  and 

Cicero. 

The  attempt  to  restore  the  status  of  the 
peasant  was  undertaken  by  the  brothers 
Tiberius  and  Caius  Gracchus,  who  sprang 
from  the  old  Roman  nobility.  Tiberius  was 
the  people's  tribune  in  the  year  134  B.C.,  and 
was  summoned  by  the  poor  citizens  to  secure 
for  them  the  enjoyment  of  the  State  domains. 
One  year  later  he  made  the  proposal  to  limit 
the  appropriation  of  the  State  domains,  and 
to  create  unalienable  homesteads  on  hereditary 
leases  of  twenty  acres  out  of  the  land  thus  liber- 
ated. It  appears  that  the  former  owners  of 
the  surrendered  land  were  to  be  compensated, 
and  the  small  peasant  was  likewise  to  receive 
State  assistance  in  procuring  stock.  As  the 
nobles  offered  opposition,  Tiberius  set  on  foot 
a  comprehensive  agitation,  and  in  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  privations  of  the  people  he  said  : 
"  The  wild  beasts  of  Italy  have  their  caves  to 
retire  to,  but  the  brave  men  who  spill  their 
blood  in  her  cause  have  nothing  left  but  air 
and    light.     Without    houses,    without    any 


140    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES  IN  ANTIQUITY 

settled  habitation,  they  wander  from  place 
to  place  with  their  wives  and  children,  and 
their  generals  do  but  mock  them  when,  at 
the  head  of  their  armies,  they  exhort  them 
to  fight  for  their  sepulchres  and  household 
gods,  for  among  such  numbers  there  is  not 
perhaps  one  Roman  who  has  an  altar  that 
belonged  to  his  ancestors  or  a  sepulchre  in 
which  their  ashes  rest.  The  private  soldiers 
fight  and  die  to  advance  the  wealth  and 
luxury  of  the  great;  and  they  are  called 
masters  of  the  world,  while  they  have  not  a 
foot  of  ground  in  their  possession  "  (Plutarch, 
"  T.  S.  Gracchus  "). 

As  the  time  approached  when  the  Popular 
Assembly  would  vote  upon  the  proposed 
legislation,  Tiberius,  as  Appian  reports  (Civil 
Wars,  Book  i,  chap,  ii),  delivered  a  long 
speech  and  asked  "if  it  were  not  just  that 
communal  goods  should  be  communally 
shared;  if  the  citizen  was  not  always  better 
than  the  slave,  the  warrior  more  useful  than 
those  unfit  for  war?  "  After  the  Romans, 
so  he  continued,  had  already  conquered  most 
countries  by  force  of  arms,  and  had  also 
directed  their  hopes  upon  the  remaining 
inhabited    countries,    they    were    confronted 


ROME  141 

with  the  alternative  of  either  conquering  the 
remaining  countries  by  their  hosts  of  warUke 
men,  or  of  losing  even  their  present  possessions 
through  their  weakness  and  envy. 

He  warned  the  wealthy,  in  view  of  these 
circumstances,  to  abandon  their  lands,  as  a 
voluntary  offering,  and  upon  their  own 
initiative,  to  those  who  brought  up  children 
for  the  State,  and  not  to  overlook  the  most 
important  things  while  disputing  about  trifles. 
According  to  Appian,  then,  Gracchus  was 
chiefly  influenced  by  the  desire  to  furnish 
numerous  and  warlike  citizens  for  the  Roman 
State,  to  afford  it  the  opportunity  of  main- 
taining its  conquests  and  extending  them. 
In  any  case,  the  proposed  reform  was  a  social 
conservative  measure. 

The  enthusiasm  of  the  people  for  Tiberius 
Gracchus  was  so  overpowering  that  the  Senate 
finally  accepted  the  proposal,  but  great 
difficulties  arose  in  its  execution.  Tiberius 
was  therefore  obliged  to  offer  himself  as  a 
candidate  for  the  tribunate  of  the  year  132, 
and  held  election  meetings.  In  one  of  these 
meetings,  the  supporters  of  the  Senate's 
party  appeared  with  cudgels  and  sticks  and 
slew  Tiberius  and  many  of  his  supporters. 


142    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

Nevertheless  the  Agrarian  Law  was  not 
inoperative;  about  80,000,  small  peasant 
homesteads  were  created. 

The  work  of  Tiberius  was  resumed  by  his 
brother  Caius  in  the  year  123.  Elected  as  a 
people's  tribune,  he  carried  through  a  measure 
that  a  certain  quantity  of  corn  should  be 
served  out  to  the  people  every  month  at  the 
expense  of  the  State.  He  reformed  the 
judiciary,  caused  long  roads  to  be  constructed 
throughout  Italy,  in  order  to  give  employment 
to  the  workless,  and  also  tried  to  democratise 
the  franchise  and  to  take  in  hand  a  compre- 
hensive internal  colonisation.  Eventually, 
Caius  shared  the  fate  of  his  brother;  he  was 
slain  in  121. 

It  accords  perfectly  with  Roman  hypocrisy 
that  a  Temple  of  Concord  was  built  upon  the 
spot  where  the  murder  of  the  Gracchi  and 
their  supporters  took  place. 

In  spite  of  the  concord  extremely  mur- 
derous slave  insurrections  and  civil  wars  soon 
broke  out.  In  the  year  100  the  so-called 
democrat  Marius  was  instrumental  in  mur- 
dering 50  senators  and  1000  knights,  his 
opponent  Sulla  (82),  40  senators  and  1600 
knights. 


ROME  143 

Their  property  was  confiscated;  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  confiscation  of  Sulla's  property 
amounted  to  about  four  million  pounds 
sterling ;  usury  and  mercantile  capital  bought 
up  the  sequestrated  goods,  which  were  worth 
four  times  the  purchase  price.  In  the  year 
'j^  the  Spartacus  rebellion  broke  out,  which 
we  will  deal  with  presently.  These  con- 
ditions furnished  the  inflammable  materials 
for  the  conspiracy  of  Catiline,  in  the  year 
63  B.C.  The  Roman  historian  Sallust,  who 
wrote  of  the  events  from  his  social  conserva- 
tive standpoint,  thought  that  the  Roman 
people  at  that  time  found  themselves  in  a 
lamentable  state  of  mind  :  "  From  the  setting 
to  the  rising  of  the  sun  its  arms  had  subdued 
every  land  to  obedience;  at  home  there  was 
tranquillity  and  wealth  in  abundance,  and 
yet  there  were  found  citizens  with  minds 
hardened  to  undertake  their  own  and  their 
country's  destruction.  Two  decrees  of  the 
Senate  had  been  passed,  but  of  all  that  host 
not  one  was  enticed  by  the  reward  offered  to 
betray  the  conspiracy,  not  one  deserted  the 
camp  of  Catiline;  so  virulent  was  the  disease 
that  had  settled  like  a  plague  on  the  minds  of 
many  citizens.     Nor  was  this  mental  disorder 


144    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

confined  to  those  who  had  been  admitted  to 
the  conspiracy ;  it  may  be  said  that  the  whole 
of  the  common  people,  in  their  eagerness  for 
revolution,  approved  the  designs  of  Catiline  " 
{Catiline  s  Conspiracy,  chaps.  36,  37). 

Thus  the  sentiments  of  the  masses  were 
revolutionary.  However,  the  historian  repre- 
sents Catiline,  the  leader  of  this  movement, 
as  the  most  horrible  monster  of  world  history. 
In  his  biography  of  Theseus,  Plutarch  says 
a  very  wise  thing  :  "It  appears  to  be  danger- 
ous, in  fact,  to  make  oneself  hated  by  a  State 
in  which  eloquence  and  poetry  flourish." 
The  same  thing  applies  to  individual  cases. 
Catiline  had  the  misfortune  to  have  for  his 
political  and  personal  enemy,  Cicero,  one  of 
the  greatest  orators  of  all  times.  Two 
characters  more  opposed  to  each  other  could 
not  exist.  Catiline  sprang  from  the  highest 
nobility  of  Rome;  Cicero  was  a  provincial 
upstart.  The  former  was  an  officer,  always 
ready  to  represent  the  cause  of  the  oppressed 
in  the  State  with  the  highest  courage;  the 
latter  was  a  lawyer  and  the  type  of  an  anxious, 
moralising  lower  middle-class  man,  careful  of 
his  property.  Both  confronted  each  other 
in  the  year  63  as  candidates  for  the  Consular 


ROME  145 

dignity,  Cicero  as  representative  of  the 
property  interests,  Catiline  as  leader  of  the 
dispossessed  and  as  a  reformer,  whose  pro- 
posals aimed  at  securing  a  share  in  the  land 
to  all  the  dispossessed,  relieving  them  of  their 
burden  of  debts,  introducing  a  stricter  super- 
vision over  the  State  finances,  and  generally 
at  promoting  the  welfare  of  the  masses  of  the 
people  by  social  and  political  measures ;  like- 
wise, he  seems  to  have  stood  for  an  alleviation 
of  the  lot  of  the  peoples  subjugated  by  Rome. 
What  Cicero  thought  about  these  questions 
may  be  clearly  seen  from  the  opinions  which 
he  expressed  in  his  book  the  Duties  (Book  II. 
chaps.  22-24):  "But  they  who  wish  to  be 
popular,  and  upon  that  account  either  attempt 
the  agrarian  affair  that  the  owners  may  be 
driven  out  of  their  possessions,  or  they  that 
borrowed  money  should  be  released  to  the 
debtors,  sap  the  foundations  of  the  con- 
stitution; for  this  is  the  peculiar  concern  of 
a  State  and  city,  that  every  person's  custody 
of  his  own  property  be  free  and  undisturbed. 
Now  what  justice  is  it  that  lands  which  have 
been  preoccupied  for  many  years  or  for 
several  ages,  he  who  was  possessed  of  none 
should  get,  but  he  who  was  in  possession  should 


146    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

lose?  And  on  account  of  this  kind  of  in- 
justice, the  Lacedemonians  expelled  their 
Ephorus  Lysander,  and  put  to  death  their 
king  Agis,  a  thing  which  never  before  had  been 
among  them.  And  from  that  time  such 
great  dissensions  ensued  that  a  constitution 
admirably  established  fell  to  pieces.  Nor 
did  it  fall  alone,  but  also  overthrew  the  rest 
of  Greece  by  the  contagion  of  evil  principles, 
which,  having  sprung  from  the  Lacedemonians, 
flowed  far  and  wide.  Was  it  not  the  agrarian 
contentions  that  destroyed  our  own  Gracchi? 
Should  any  dwell  free  of  expense  in  another 
man's  house?  Why  so?  Is  it  that  when  I 
shall  have  bought,  built,  repaired,  expended, 
you,  without  my  will,  should  enjoy  what  is 
mine?  What  else  is  this  but  to  take  from 
some  what  is  theirs,  and  give  to  some  what  is 
another  man's  ?  But  what  is  the  meaning  of 
the  abolition  of  debts  unless  that  you  should 
buy  an  estate  with  my  money,  that  you  should 
have  the  estate  and  I  should  not  have  my 
money?  " 

Holding  these  opinions,  Cicero  was  obliged, 
when  chosen  Consul  in  opposition  to  CatiJine, 
to  take  up  the  struggle  for  law,  order  and 
property.     And,  in  doing  so,  he  made  use  of 


ROME  147 

his  best  weapons :  eloquence,  demagogic 
special  pleading,  the  branding  of  his  opponents 
as  men  bereft  of  all  morality,  all  propriety, 
and  all  honour.  This  caricature  of  Catiline 
by  Cicero  has  been  transmitted  to  posterity. 
The  Roman  historian  Sallust,  a  social  con- 
servative patriot,  who  wrote  two  decades 
later,  followed  Cicero,  and  even  the  historians 
of  Rome  who  wrote  in  Greek,  like  Plutarch 
and  Appian,  made  no  attempt  to  do  justice 
to  Catiline.  Plutarch  even  repeats  quite 
uncritically  the  most  absurd  stories  about 
Catiline  and  his  friends.  This  much,  how- 
ever, is  certain,  that  Catiline  identified  himself 
with  all  the  dispossessed  and  oppressed,  and 
was  venerated  unreservedly  by  the  masses. 
The  spirit  which  animated  the  Catilinarians 
is  evident  from  the  letter  which  their  military 
leader,  Manlius,  sent  to  the  Roman  general 
Marcius  :  "  We  do  not  demand  dominion  or 
wealth,  which  are  the  sources  of  all  the  wars 
and  quarrels  in  the  world;  we  ask  only  for 
freedom." 

Catiline  offered  himself  twice  as  a  can- 
didate for  the  Consular  dignity,  in  order  to 
obtain  the  legal  power  "  to  draw  the  teeth 
of    the   few   potentates   who    possessed    the 


148    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

State  as  their  exclusive  property,  and  restore 
to  the  people  their  liberty  and  rights."  In 
the  elections  the  party  of  order  triumphed. 
Catiline  was  defeated.  As  the  legal  way 
was  closed  to  him,  he  proceeded  to  make 
preparations  for  an  insurrection,  and  to 
organise  the  masses  of  the  discontented. 
Cicero,  the  victorious  opponent  of  Catiline, 
had  his  spies  everywhere,  who  were  able  to 
perform  their  work  all  the  more  easily,  as 
Catiline  had  departed  to  the  country,  in 
order  to  get  into  touch  with  the  Roman  army 
there. 

The  preparations  for  the  rebellion  were 
discovered  in  Rome  on  the  5th  December, 
63  B.C.,  and  the  ringleaders  were  executed. 
Catiline  and  his  troops  were  defeated  by 
the  superior  forces  of  the  Romans,  in  open 
battle,  not  far  from  Florence,  in  the  year  62. 
Catiline  and  Manlius  were  among  the  slain. 
The  stubborn  character  of  the  fighting  may 
be  inferred  from  the  description  in  Sallust's 
concluding  chapter  :  "It  was  only  after  the 
battle  was  decided  that  it  could  be  fully  seen 
with  what  daring  and  resolution  Catiline's 
army  had  been  inspired.  Almost  the  exact 
position  which  each  had  taken  up  while  living 


ROME  149 

he  now  in  death  covered  with  his  body. 
Catihne,  however,  was  found  at  a  distance 
from  his  own  men  among  the  enemies'  dead. 
He  continued  to  breathe  for  a  short  time  and 
retained  on  his  countenance  that  savage 
courage  that  had  marked  him  in  hfe." 

The  corrupt  and  ohgarchical  republic  was 
rapidly  approaching  its  end.  Two  years  after 
the  death  of  Catihne  Rome  saw  the  military 
triumvirate  of  Pompey,  Crassus  and  Julius 
Caesar.  The  military  monarchy  was  knocking 
at  the  doors  of  the  Roman  world  empire. 

5.  Slave  Insurrections. 

Since  the  conclusion  of  the  second  Punic 
War  (201  B.C.),  and  since  the  victorious  wars 
against  the  Macedonians  and  Syrians,  there 
had  been  an  increase  in  the  cultivation  of  the 
large  estates  by  multitudes  of  slaves.  And  as 
national  economy  was  operated  on  capitalist 
Unes,  and  the  Romans,  as  masters  of  the 
world,  despised  labour  and  the  disinherited 
class,  the  lot  of  the  unfree  worker  became 
more  and  more  arduous.  Likewise,  almost 
all  industry  and  all  domestic  labours  were 
performed  by  slaves.  Innumerable  unfree 
workers  were  employed  in  luxurious  building 


150    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES  IN  ANTIQUITY 

and  the  construction  of  villas.  Mountains 
were  demolished,  lakes  were  formed,  according 
to  the  whims  of  the  plutocrats. 

The  everlasting  wars  in  all  parts  of  the 
world  furnished  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
prisoners,  who  were  put  into  the  slave  yoke, 
but  could  not,  however,  satisfy  the  needs 
of  the  Roman  masters.  Consequently,  man- 
hunts were  organised,  and  kidnapping  was 
practised,  in  order  to  fill  the  slave  markets. 
Rome  became  the  tyrant  of  three-quarters 
of  the  world.  The  treatment  of  the  slaves 
became  ever  harsher.  The  measure  of  the 
severity  is  shown  by  the  conduct  of  the  elder 
Cato,  a  Roman  famed  for  his  great  virtues, 
who  simply  sold  his  old  slaves,  after  they 
had  exhausted  all  their  labour-power  in  his 
service.  No  wonder  the  slaves  began  to 
murmur,  or  inclined  towards  rebellion,  or 
seized  every  opportunity  for  flight.  To  pre- 
vent them  from  absconding,  slaves  working 
on  the  land  were  branded  with  glowing  irons, 
like  cattle,  and  chained  to  their  work.  Flight 
was  punished  with  death  by  crucifixion.  The 
deepest  degradation,  however,  was  reserved 
for  those  slaves  who,  being  distinguished  by 
physical  strength,  were  trained  as  gladiators 


ROME  151 

in  order  to  furnish  the  spectacle  of  human 
slaughter  in  the  arena  to  the  Roman  mob, 
the  Patrician  nobles  and  Plebeian  populace. 

Educated  prisoners  of  war  and  hostages, 
like  the  Greeks,  or  slaves  who  were  otherwise 
adept  in  business,  like  the  Syrians,  found 
positions  as  domestic  teachers  or  adminis- 
trators, and  were  gradually  emancipated. 
One  of  these  released  hostages  was  the  Greek 
historian  Polybius,  whose  books  are  among 
the  best  works  on  Roman  history.  The 
Roman  nobility  and  plutocracy  had  nothing 
but  contempt  for  the  Greeks,  and  lamented 
their  influence  on  Roman  civilisation.  There 
were,  indeed,  exceptions,  but  generally  speak- 
ing the  dominant  Romans  despised  Hellenism. 

The  concentration  of  slaves,  these  masses 
of  men  filled  with  the  bitterest  hatred,  was 
certain  sooner  or  later  to  lead  to  conspiracies 
and  rebellions,  and  then  it  only  depended  on 
the  presence  of  energetic  leaders  to  bring  the 
rebellions  to  a  head.  The  first  Italian  slave 
insurrection  broke  out  in  Apulia,  187  B.C. 
It  was  soon  put  down;  7000  slaves  were 
crucified.  Incomparably  more  bloody  and 
more  protracted  were  the  two  great  slave 
insurrections   in   Sicily    (134-132,    104-101). 


152    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

This  fertile  island  offered  an  extensive  field 
for  slave  labour.  The  State  domains  there 
were  latifundia,  broad  cornfields,  olive  plan- 
tations and  sheep  walks.  Masses  of  slaves 
cultivated  the  soil,  tended  the  trees,  guarded 
the  flocks  of  sheep,  and  made  Sicily  the 
granary  of  Rome.  The  rebellion  which  broke 
out  there  in  134  developed  into  a  protracted 
war.  The  leaders  of  the  rebels  were  the 
Syrian  Eunus  and  the  Macedonian  Kleon, 
who  gathered  around  them  70,000  men 
capable  of  bearing  arms,  and  the  island  came 
almost  completely  into  their  power.  For 
several  years  they  maintained  their  position 
against  the  Roman  armies,  but  eventually 
they  were  defeated,  partly  by  starvation  and 
partly  by  force  of  arms.  This  took  place  at 
the  same  time  as  Gracchus  was  agitating 
Rome.  The  other  Sicilian  rebellion  was  like- 
wise led  by  a  Syrian  named  Salvius,  and  a 
Macedonian  named  Athenion.  The  Romans 
only  succeeded  in  mastering  the  rebellion 
after  the  leaders  had  been  slain  in  battle. 

The  years  of  the  Gracchian  agitation  were 
generally  a  period  of  insurrections.  Even  in 
Asia  Minor  both  the  possessing  class  and  the 
slaves  rebelled  against  the  extension  of  the 


ROME  153 

Roman  domination.  In  the  year  133,  King 
Attalos  III  died  in  Pergamon.  He  was  a 
mentally  deficient  and  degenerate  monarch, 
who  had  succumbed  to  the  Roman  influence. 
Either  by  force  or  by  fraud  the  Romans 
received  from  him  a  testament,  in  which 
Attalos  bequeathed  to  Rome  his  very  con- 
siderable property,  in  addition  to  his  land. 
At  the  same  ^imc,  Pergamon  was  trans- 
formed into  a  complete  political  democracy; 
the  whole  of  the  inhabitants,  native  and 
foreign,  property-owning  and  disinherited, 
received  the  franchise  and  the  independent 
administration  of  their  State. 

Now,  when  the  Romans  entered  into  their 
heritage  and  sought  to  extend  their  dominion 
over  the  country,  a  rebellion  broke  out,  the 
leadership  being  assumed  by  Aristonikos,  a 
half-brother  of  Attalos.  He  hved  in  Leuka, 
a  small  port  between  Smyrna  and  Pdokea. 
Several  towns  declared  in  his  favour,  but 
others,  like  Ephesus,  ranged  themselves  on 
the  side  of  the  Romans.  A  war  broke  out, 
in  which  Aristonikos  was  at  first  defeated. 
Soon,  however,  he  reappeared  as  a  liberator 
of  the  slaves,  and  summoned  aU  unfree 
workers  to  take  part  in  the  struggle  against 


154    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

the  Romans.  Multitudes  of  slaves  answered 
his  appeal,  and,  with  them,  he  founded  a 
Sun  town  or  a  Sun  State  (heliopolis).  What 
this  foundation  implied  is  not  clear;  the 
historical  records  leave  us  here  quite  in  the 
dark. 

It  might,  however,  be  mentioned  that  this 
is  conjectured  to  have  been  a  communist 
society.  Ai  the  close  ul  antinnitv.  as  well  as 
in  the  middle  ages,  a  Sun  State  was  under- 
stood to  mean  a  communist  establishment. 
The  citizens  of  the  Sun  State,  who  were  led 
by  Aristonikos,  that  is,  the  freed  slaves, 
organised  themselves  rapidly  and  made  a 
victorious  progress  through  the  Pergamonic 
country.  The  Romans,  who  rather  feared 
the  loss  of  their  rich  heritage,  sent  troops  to 
Pergamon,  in  the  year  131,  and  placed  them 
under  the  chief  command  of  a  Consul.  It 
must  therefore  have  been  an  army  of  con- 
siderable size ;  nevertheless,  it  was  constantly 
defeated  by  Aristonikos.  But  the  war  was 
continued  until  the  year  129,  and  the  sun- 
dwellers  were  finally  defeated.  Aristonikos 
was  taken  prisoner,  brought  to  Rome,  and 
executed. 


ROME  155 

6.  Spartaciis. 

The  innumerable  sacrifices  to  Roman 
covetousness  were  to  find  in  Spartacus  such 
an  avenger  as  Rome  had  never  known.  The 
rebellion  of  the  exploited  and  oppressed  under 
the  leadership  of  this  man  (from  the  year  73 
to  71  B.C.)  was  the  only  affair  that  terrified 
the  masters  of  the  world,  and  prepared  for 
them  hun.iliations  and  defeats  which  covered 
them  with  ridicule  and  shame.  It  was  slaves 
of  the  lowest  order,  gladiators,  who  measured 
their  strength  with  the  consular  armies  of 
Rome,  victoriously  opposed  them,  and  fre- 
quently inflicted  crushing  defeats  upon  them 
in  open  battle.  The  depth  of  degradation 
into  which  Rome  was  plunged  by  this  rebel- 
hon  is  shown  by  the  observation  of  the 
Roman  historian  Florus  {Roman  History, 
Book  III.  chap.  20)  : 

"  The  shame  of  a  slave  war  is  still  to  be 
borne.  Slaves,  however  degraded  by  fate, 
still  belong  to  the  second  order  of  humanity, 
and  are  able  to  demand  the  privileges  of 
freedom.  But  I  do  not  know  how  to  describe 
the  war  with  Spartacus.  Here  slaves  were 
warriors,  and  gladiators  were  generals.     The 


156    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

former  from  the  lowest  class,  the  latter  from 
the  most  despised  class,  added  the  element  of 
ridicule  to  the  element  of  danger." 

Spartacus  was  a  general  and  organiser  of 
the  greatness  of  Hannibal.  With  sufficient 
numbers  of  properly  equipped  forces  he  could 
have  overthrown  the  dominion  of  Rome. 
Plutarch  (Life  of  Crassiis)  describes  him  as 
"  extremely  strong  and  earnest,  wise  and 
humane  above  his  station,  more  like  a  true 
Greek  than  a  barbarian."  Coming  from  a 
Hellene  like  Plutarch,  this  is  very  great  praise. 

Extremely  little  is  known  of  his  youth,  and 
of  his  life  generally  up  till  73  B.C.  He  was  a 
Thracian,  and  was  born  in  a  nomadic  tribe. 
He  came  to  Rome  as  a  prisoner  of  war,  and 
was  sold  as  a  slave.  He  escaped,  became  a 
hired  soldier,  and  was  eventually  sold  to  the 
proprietor  of  a  fencing  school  in  Capua,  in 
order  to  be  trained  as  a  gladiator.  Spartacus 
found  himself  with  about  200  other  slaves, 
Thracians  and  Gauls,  who  conspired  to  break 
loose  on  the  first  favourable  opportunity,  and 
to  win  freedom.  The  conspiracy  was  be- 
trayed, but  Spartacus  and  some  70  with  him 
managed  to  break  through.  On  their  way, 
they  plundered  a  waggon  containing  arms, 


ROME  157 

which  they  soon  used  with  success  against 
the  pursuers,  who  had  been  despatched  by 
their  owner.  This  success  quickly  became 
known  in  the  district,  and  brought  them  fresh 
supporters  and  fighters.  Henceforth  they 
numbered  200  men,  who  behaved  towards 
the  proprietors  without  ceremony.  At  first 
they  were  regarded  as  a  dangerous  band  of 
robbers,  against  which  the  Roman  authorities 
sent  the  Praetor,  Cladius  Pulcher,  with  3000 
men,  in  order  to  put  a  stop  to  the  depreda- 
tions. Spartacus  took  up  a  position  on  the 
summit  of  Vesuvius,  at  that  time  inactive, 
and  totally  defeated  his  enemies.  Camp, 
baggage  and  arms  fell  into  his  hands.  From 
this  moment  Spartacus  was  a  famous  man. 
His  name  was  known  throughout  Italy.  He 
declared  himself  openly  to  be  an  enemy  of 
Rome,  and  called  upon  all  who  were  slaves 
or  oppressed  to  rally  round  him,  and  to  engage 
in  the  struggle  for  emancipation.  Multitudes 
of  slaves  and  dispossessed,  foreigners  and 
Italians,  responded  to  his  appeal.  Country 
people  left  their  holdings,  shepherds  their 
sheep,  slaves  their  masters,  prisoners  broke 
their  bars,  conscripted  workers  broke  their 
chains — all  flocked  to  him,  the  chastiser  of 


158    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

Rome.  Out  of  the  hordes  which  came  to- 
gether Spartacus  formed  an  army,  which  gave 
a  good  account  of  itself  in  battle,  but  even  his 
genius  did  not  succeed  in  inducing  these 
bitter  and  hate-breathing  men  to  observe 
proper  behaviour  towards  non-combatants. 
Plundering  and  burning,  they  marched 
through  the  country,  devastated  the  blooming 
Campania,  their  light  troops  even  penetrating 
into  the  districts  which  bordered  on  Rome, 
everywhere  spreading  f rightfulness.  The  lust 
of  the  troops  for  plunder  was  one  of  the 
causes  which  sometimes  prevented  Spartacus 
from  utilising  his  victories  or  attacking  the 
enemy  at  an  opportune  moment.  Likewise, 
he  found  it  very  difficult  to  maintain  in  a  state 
of  permanent  unity  the  various  ethnical 
elements,  Thracians,  Syrians,  Gauls,  Ger- 
mans, Italians,  etc.,  of  which  his  army  was 
composed. 

The  news  of  the  defeat  of  the  Praetor, 
Claudius  Pulcher,  was  received  in  Rome  with 
incredulity  and  astonishment.  An  army  of 
8000  to  10,000  men  was  quickly  raised — the 
proper  Roman  legions  were  not  used  in  such 
expeditions;  moreover,  at  that  time,  they 
were   engaged  in   Spain   and  on  the   Lower 


ROME  159 

Danube,  under  the  great  generals  Pompey 
and  Lucullus — and  placed  under  two  Praetors. 
Spartacus  was  circumspect,  and  did  not 
venture  to  offer  open  battle  to  his  enemies. 
But  his  subordinate  generals,  especially  the 
Gauls,  regarded  his  foresight  as  timidity, 
attacked  the  Romans  with  3000  men,  and 
were  beaten.  Only  then  did  the  remainder 
recognise  the  wisdom  of  their  leader,  sub- 
mitted themselves  to  his  orders,  and  con- 
sented to  the  retreat,  which  was  carried  out 
without  loss.  Spartacus,  however,  soon  found 
an  opportunity  to  retrieve  the  defeat.  After 
several  successful  skirmishes  and  raids,  it 
came  to  a  battle,  which  ended  in  a  brilliant 
victory  for  Spartacus.  All  Lower  Italy  fell 
as  booty  to  the  gladiators. 

The  slave  army  rejoiced  and  plundered, 
while  Spartacus  became  more  and  more 
serious.  Having  a  good  knowledge  of  the 
Roman  power,  he  knew  that  the  campaign 
up  to  the  present  had  signified  merely  a  small 
outpost  fight,  and  had  scarcely  touched  the 
power  of  Rome.  His  mind  was,  above  all, 
bent  upon  the  liberation  of  the  slaves,  and  he 
believed  he  could  perform  this  work  to  a 
large    extent.     The    slaves    of    Lower    Italy 


160    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

were  already  free.  His  idea  now  was  to 
march  rapidly  northwards,  range  through 
the  whole  of  Italy,  and  beat  down  all  the 
obstacles  that  stood  in  the  way  of  his  work 
of  liberation,  before  the  Romans  gained  time 
to  recover  from  their  fright,  and  recalled 
their  great  generals,  Pompey  and  LucuUus, 
with  their  legions.  This  train  of  thought 
revealed  great  statesmanlike  insight.  But 
his  subordinate  generals,  and  also  the  troops, 
who  had  tasted  Roman  blood,  offered  violent 
and  stubborn  opposition  to  this  plan.  In  vain 
Spartacus  reminded  them  that  they  had  not 
yet  measured  their  strength  with  the  real 
legions  of  Rome,  in  vain  he  described  to  them 
the  whole  extent  of  the  power  of  this  world 
empire.  It  might,  indeed,  be  surprised  for 
a  time,  but  it  was  scarcely  likely  to  be  over- 
come when  it  collected  together  all  its 
resources.  The  army  was  divided  in  opinion  : 
the  Gauls  and  the  Germans,  under  the  leader- 
ship of  the  subordinate  general  Crixius,  were 
for  a  march  upon  the  city  of  Rome;  the 
Thracians  and  the  southern  Italians  adhered 
to  Spartacus.  Meanwhile  Rome  made  com- 
prehensive preparations  to  meet  the  gladia- 
torial army  with  all  its  strength.     The  original 


ROME  161 

disparagement  had  given  place  to  caution. 
Three  powerful  armies  were  soon  sent  into 
the  field,  two  under  Consuls,  and  therefore 
under  the  highest  officials  of  Rome,  and  one 
under  a  Praetor.  In  face  of  this  Roman 
armament,  Spartacus  and  Crixius  patched 
up  their  differences,  but  a  real  union  was  not 
effected.  Henceforth  they  marched  separ- 
ately; Spartacus  with  40,000  men,  Crixius 
with  30,000  men.  Soon  Crixius  met  the 
Roman  Prsetorian  army,  which  fell  into 
disorder  and  took  to  flight  upon  being 
attacked  by  the  Gauls  and  Germans.  As  the 
pursuit  was  dilatory,  the  Praetorian  army 
collected  itself  on  the  following  day,  fell 
upon  the  unsuspecting  Gauls  and  over- 
powered them.  Crixius  himself  was  killed 
in  battle.  About  10,000  men  were  able  to 
save  themselves  by  flight,  and  forced  their 
way  to  Spartacus.  The  victorious  Praetorian 
army  then  made  a  junction  with  one  of  the 
two  Consular  armies,  which,  divided  into  two 
columns,  sought  out  Spartacus.  The  latter 
did  not  keep  them  waiting.  With  the  greater 
part  of  his  army — the  smaller  part  he  ordered 
to  hold  the  other  Consular  army  in  check — 
he   hurled   himself   upon   the   first   Consular 


162    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

army,    and     completely    defeated     it.      He 
speedily  joined  the  remaining  section  of  his 
army,    attacked   the   same   day   the   second 
Consular  army,  and  also  obtained  a  complete 
victory  over  the  latter.     The  baggage  and  a 
great   multitude   of   prisoners   fell   into    the 
hands    of    Spartacus.      Unwearied    he    con- 
tinued his  march  northwards,  defeating  the 
troops  which  were  hastily  thrown  against  him 
by    the    Roman    Praetors    and    Pro-consuls. 
He  seemed  invincible.     His  next  enterprise 
was  something  that  was  felt  in  Rome  to  be 
the  most  painful  humiliation.     He  arranged 
a  solemn  funeral  for  Crixius,   and,   on  this 
occasion,  compelled  300  Roman  prisoners  to 
appear  as  gladiators  and  engage  in  mortal 
combat,  in  the  sight  of  the  entire  Spartacist 
army.     The   despised   slaves   were   now   the 
spectators — the  proud  Romans  were  the  prize- 
fighters in  the  arena.     Of  all  the  news  con- 
cerning the  losses  which   had   hitherto  been 
suffered   in   this   gladiatorial   war,    not   any 
wounded  the  Romans  so  deeply,  so  bitterly  as 
this.     The  death  as  gladiators  of  300  Roman 
warriors  inflicted  the  most  ignominious  insult 
upon  the  majesty  of  Rome,   and  made  an 
indelible  stigma  upon  its  honour. 


ROME  163 

To  treat  kings  and  princes,  taken  as 
prisoners,  with  cold,  calculated  cruelty,  to 
let  them  starve,  be  tortured,  and  die  the 
most  painful  death  in  prison;  to  dispose  of 
entire  peoples  as  if  they  were  herds  of  cattle — 
all  this  seemed  to  the  citizens  of  Rome,  the 
so-called  first  and  noblest  people  on  earth, 
as  their  proper  prerogative.  But  that  their 
captured  citizens  should  also  be  compelled 
to  engage  in  mutual  slaughter,  such  an 
outrage,  or  even  its  bare  possibility,  had 
never  entered  a  Roman's  head.  And  who 
shamed  them  in  this  fashion?  A  man  upon 
whose  life  and  death  only  a  few  months 
before  the  outstretched  or  closed  thumbs  of 
some  Plebeians  could  have  decided.  A  man 
who,  together  with  fifty  or  sixty  of  his  kind, 
would  have  been  compelled  to  die  if  it  had 
pleased  the  whim  of  a  young  Roman  Patrician 
to  make  a  sacrifice  to  his  deceased  aunt. 

Spartacus  was  now  at  the  height  of  his 
power.  It  was  possible  for  him  to  execute 
his  original  design,  to  liberate  a  multitude 
of  slaves,  to  dissolve  his  army,  and  live 
in  the  consciousness  of  having  humiliated 
Rome,  the  oppressor  of  the  world.  But  he 
suddenly  altered  his  plans.     Instead  of  cross- 


164    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES  IN  ANTIQUITY 

ing  the  Po,  he  turned  back  and  made  for 
the  south.  In  Italy  it  was  assumed  that  he 
intended  to  march  against  the  city  of  Rome. 
To  obstruct  the  road  thither,  a  new  Praetorian 
army  was  hurled  at  him;  in  the  Picenian 
territory  a  great  battle  was  fought,  from  which 
Spartacus  once  more  emerged  as  victor. 
Rome  now  fell  into  a  state  of  consternation. 
Spartacus,  however,  marched  by  Rome,  and 
led  his  army  into  Lower  Italy,  occupied 
Thuria,  declared  it  to  be  a  free  port,  and 
promulgated  benevolent  laws.  There  are 
indications  that  Spartacus  conceived  the  plan 
of  establishing  in  Lower  Italy  a  State  upon 
the  model  of  Lycurgian  Sparta.  He  abolished 
the  use  of  gold  and  silver,  fixed  low  prices 
for  all  the  means  of  life,  encouraged  the  simple 
Spartan  mode  of  living,  welded  into  a  brother- 
hood the  refugees  from  the  various  nations 
who  lived  under  his  protection,  and  educated 
them  to  a  state  of  military  efficiency.  Occu- 
pied with  these  political  plans,  Spartacus 
forgot  that  the  enemy,  to  whom  he  had 
allowed  time  to  recover  from  his  fright,  was 
arming  with  all  his  strength.  A  strong,  well- 
disciplined  army  was  raised,  and  the  Praetor 
Crassus,   who  was  experienced  in  war,  was 


ROME  165 

appointed  supreme  commander.  The  Romans 
now  behaved  with  much  greater  caution,  and 
also  utihsed  their  technical  knowledge,  in 
which  they  were  superior  to  their  enemies. 
Nevertheless,  at  the  beginning  they  suffered 
defeats.  Only  when  dissensions  broke  out 
in  the  camp  of  Spartacus — once  more  it  was 
the  hot-headed,  undisciplined  Gauls  who 
operated  independently  under  their  own 
generals,  and  suffered  great  losses  in  the 
struggles  with  the  Romans — did  the  position 
of  Crassus  become  more  favourable.  Spar- 
tacus, indeed,  won  several  victories  over  him, 
but  eventually  he  succumbed  to  the  Roman 
forces  in  the  year  71.  He  was  himself 
mortally  wounded  in  the  battle.  Some  6000 
men  of  his  army  fell  into  the  hands  of  Crassus, 
who  crucified  them,  whereas  in  the  camp  of 
Spartacus  3000  Roman  prisoners  were  found 
alive.  The  "  lowest  "  category  of  mankind, 
the  warriors  of  Spartacus,  had  spared  the  lives 
of  their  foes.  It  was  several  decades  before  the 
Romans  were  able  to  divest  themselves  of  the 
terrors  inspired  in  them  by  the  gladiatorial 
war.  The  Roman  mothers  among  the  common 
people  used  to  frighten  their  naughty  children 
with  the  cry,  "  Hush  !   Spartacus  is  coming." 


CHAPTER  VI 

ROMAN   SOCIAL   CRITICS 

I.  The  Laments  of  the  Dispossessed. 

The  social  developments  which  have  been 
sketched  (in  the  preceding  chapter)  became 
even  more  pronounced  towards  the  end  of 
the  Republican  epoch.  From  the  struggles 
and  wars  which  the  Roman  legions  waged 
from  the  Rhine  to  the  Euphrates,  from  the 
Danube  to  the  Sahara  deserts,  the  large- 
landed  proprietor  and  the  large  capital  that 
was  bound  up  with  the  military  apparatus 
emerged  as  the  real  victors.  Julius  Caesar, 
once  the  secret  friend  of  Catiline,  later  the 
victorious  general,  who  aspired  to  the  laurels 
of  the  social  monarchy,  made  an  attempt  to 
rouse  the  Roman  and  Italian  masses,  to 
reorganise  the  provinces,  and  to  heal  the 
wounds  inflicted  upon  them  by  large  landed 
property  and  large  capital,  but  the  whole  of 
his   reformist  endeavours  bore  a  dictatorial 

1 66 


ROMAN   SOCIAL   CRITICS  1G7 

character.  On  the  15th  March,  44  B.C.,  he 
was  murdered,  but  thirteen  years  later  the 
Roman  Empire  became  a  monarchy.  Augustus 
was  the  first  Roman  Emperor  (31-14  B.C.). 

The  years  of  this  poHtical  upheaval  repre- 
sented a  period  of  high  intellectual  civilisa- 
tion, so  far  as  the  Romans  generally  were 
capable  of  such.  The  Latin  poets  Virgil 
(70-19  B.C.),  Ovid  (43  B.C.  to  A.D.  9),  Horace 
(65-8  B.C.)  were  the  literary  ornaments  of  this 
period.  And,  as  we  have  seen,  the  historians 
Sallust  and  Livy  also  belonged  to  this  epoch. 
They  marked  the  acme  of  the  Latin  intel- 
lectual civilisation.  This  was  also  the  period 
in  which  the  elements  of  a  new  world  religion 
— Christianity — were  gathered  among  the 
lower  strata  of  the  people,  and  in  the  seats 
of  learning  of  Palestine  and  Alexandria. 

From  the  social  economic  point  of  view 
nothing  had  altered  in  the  meantime.  Italy 
was  covered  with  latifundia,  which  were 
operated  by  slaves  and  small  holders  for  the 
exclusive  advantage  of  their  proprietors. 
The  expulsion  of  peasants  and  the  expro- 
priation of  the  State  domains  were  the  means 
employed  by  the  founders  of  the  latifundia  in 
Italy;    and  the  provinces  were  disposed  of 


168    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

by  the  tax  farmers,  who  received  broad  lands 
in  Asia  and  Africa,  and  ruthlessly  exploited 
the  real  tillers  of  the  soil.  Population 
decreased,  general  compulsory  service  was 
replaced  by  mercenary  armies,  and  when 
later  the  great  wars  ceased,  the  number  of 
slaves  also  diminished.  The  native  Italian 
energy  began  to  dry  up.  The  famous  saying 
of  Pliny  the  elder  (born  23,  died  a.d.  79), 
"  The  latifundia  have  ruined  Italy,  and  are 
now  ruining  the  provinces  too "  (Natural 
History,  XVIII.  6,  35),  describes  the  condi- 
tions which  had  begun  to  develop  in  the  last 
century  B.C.  Pliny  wrote  about  the  middle  of 
the  first  century,  but  long  before  this  a 
proverb  had  been  in  vogue  that  a  man 
signified  only  as  much  as  he  possessed. 

The  Roman  poet  Horace,  who  was  anything 
but  a  demagogue,  complained  [Odes,  II.  18)  : 

"  What  though  you  move  the  ancient  bound, 
That  marks  your  humble  neighbour's  ground, 
And  avariciously  o'erleap 
The  Hmits  right  should  bid  you  keep  ? 
Where  lies  your  gain  that  driv'n  from  home 
Both  wife  and  husband  forth  must  roam, 
With  squahd  babes  upon  their  breast  ?  " 

Seneca  the  elder,  or  the  Rhetorician  (54  B.C. 


ROMAN  SOCIAL   CRITICS  169 

to  A.D.  38),  reports  the  complaint  of  a  country- 
man, whose  neighbour  had  burned  down  huts 
because  the  trees  pleased  him  :  "  You  rich 
own  the  countryside,  and  fill  the  towns  and 
their  environs  with  your  palaces.  So  that 
your  villas,  lying  in  all  directions,  may  be 
warm  in  the  winter  and  cool  in  the  summer, 
and  be  unaffected  by  changes  in  the  seasons, 
so  that  there  may  be  artificial  woods  and 
navigable  lakes  on  your  highest  ridges,  we 
see  now  simple  slaves  in  the  fields  who  formerly 
counted  as  a  people,  and  the  sphere  of  power 
of  their  masters  extended  farther  than  that  of 
kings." 

In  another  complaint  of  a  poor  man  against 
a  rich,  the  peasant  tells  the  story  of  his 
sufferings  :  "At  first  I  did  not  have  a  rich 
man  for  neighbour.  All  around  me  pro- 
prietors of  equal  fortune  were  settled  upon 
numerous  farms,  and  cultivated  their  modest 
domains  in  neighbourly  concord.  How 
different  now !  The  country  which  once 
supported  all  these  citizens  is  now  become  a 
single  great  plantation,  which  belongs  to  a 
single  rich  man.  His  property  has  pushed 
forward  its  boundaries  on  all  sides.  The 
peasant   farmsteads  which  it   swallowed  up 


170    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

are  levelled  to  the  ground,  and  the  sanctuaries 
of  the  fathers  are  destroyed.  The  old  pro- 
prietors have  taken  leave  of  the  protective 
god  of  the  paternal  house,  and  are  obliged 
to  travel  afar,  with  wife  and  children.  Uni- 
form desolation  reigns  over  the  countryside. 
Everywhere  I  am  enclosed  by  wealth  as  by  a 
wall;  here  the  gardens  of  the  rich;  there 
their  fields ;  here  their  vineyards ;  there  their 
woods  and  pastures.  And  this  wholesale 
annexation  only  stopped  short  at  the  proper- 
ties of  other  rich  persons." 

These  complaints  are  the  last  despairing 
cry  of  the  decaying  Roman  peasantry.  And 
things  were  no  better  with  the  urban  prole- 
tariat. The  overseas  expansion  of  Rome 
inflicted  irreparable  damage  upon  the  Roman 
and  Italian  industrial  workers. 

The  expropriation  of  the  peasantry  and 
overseas  expansion  are  also  the  characteristic 
features  of  the  beginning  of  the  modern  times 
of  Western  Europe.  Why  was  the  outcome 
of  the  two  processes  so  different  ?  In  Rome 
it  was  followed  by  decay.  In  Christian 
Europe  it  was  followed  by  economic  and 
political  prosperity. 

In  Western  Europe  the  expropriated  peasant 


ROMAN   SOCIAL   CRITICS  171 

wandered  to  the  towns,  and  found  employ- 
ment in  industry  and  manufactures.  The 
overseas  conquests  supphed  raw  material. 
The  manufactured  goods  found  a  sale  in  the 
growing  demand  and  the  expanding  market. 
In  Rome  the  expropriated  peasant  wandered 
to  the  town,  and  found  the  superior  competi- 
tion of  slaves.  The  overseas  conquests  were 
countries  upon  a  higher  level  of  civilisation 
than  Rome.  Asia  Minor  and  Egypt  were 
masters  of  industrial  processes  and  products 
which  the  free  Romans  did  not  possess,  and 
could  not  create.  Just  as  the  Greeks  intel- 
lectually defeated  their  victors,  so  Asia  Minor 
and  Egypt  proved  themselves  to  be  far 
superior  to  the  Romans  as  producers.  Rome 
became  the  market  for  the  provinces.  Its 
impoverished  masses  were  obliged  to  live 
either  by  State  doles  or  private  benevolence, 
or  to  return  to  the  land  as  small  holders  upon 
such  conditions  as  the  large  landlords  imposed 
on  them. 

Christian  Europe  pushed  its  way  through 
from  the  Renaissance  to  the  modern  era, 
developed  technology,  enriched  its  sources 
of  material  aid,  and  completed  the  economic 
revolution.     Rome,  however,  retrograded;   it 


172    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

created  feudal  conditions  and  forced  the  small 
tenants  to  become  bondsmen.  This  was  the 
so-called  colonate,  which  struck  root  every- 
where after  the  first  century  of  the  Imperial 
epoch. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  whole  of 
this  Roman  retrogression  exposed  the  urban 
proletariat  to  privation,  poverty  and  ruin. 
The  discontent  and  the  rebellious  sentiments 
which  had  inspired  all  those  who  were  dis- 
possessed and  heavily  in  debt,  and  proletarian 
existences  generally  at  the  time  of  Spartacus 
and  Catiline,  were  bound,  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, to  be  considerably  heightened. 

Why  is  it,  however,  that  we  do  not  hear  of 
any  communistic  movements  on  the  part  of 
the  Roman  proletariat  ?  Before  we  answer 
this  very  important  question  we  will  digress 
for  a  while  among  the  Roman  writers  who 
could  not  avoid  giving  expression  here  and 
there  to  critical  social  sentiments. 

2.  Longings  for  Simplicity,  Freedom  and 
Harmony. 

As  in  Hellas,  in  times  of  sharp  social 
divisions  ai.^  proletarian  movements,  so  the 
Latin  poets  and  thinkers  also  glance  back  at 


ROMAN  SOCIAL   CRITICS  173 

that  period  of  primitive  communism  when 
men  had  Hved  in  simpHcity,  in  freedom  and 
harmony.  These  poets  either  glorified  or 
longed  for  the  return  of  the  Golden  Age,  which 
is  equivalent  to  pronouncing  a  condemnation 
of  the  age  of  private  property,  violence,  trade 
speculation,  and  war  at  home  and  abroad. 

Sallust,  in  his  Catiline,  sighed  regretfully 
for  the  time  when  the  life  of  man  was  yet 
free  from  covetousness,  and  man  contented 
himself  with  his  own.  Virgil  is  more  pointed 
in  his  Georgics  (I.  125-28),  where  he  extols 
the  time  when  Saturn  still  reigned  (and  not 
Jupiter,  the  god  of  the  iron  age,  which 
brought  so  much  trouble  and  pain)  : 

"  Before  the  rule  of  Jove  no  tillers  used  to 
subdue  the  fields.  It  was  impious  then  e'en 
to  mark  the  field  or  distinguish  it  by  bounds. 
Men's  gains  were  for  the  common  stock;  of 
her  own  free-will  more  readily  the  earth  did 
all  things  bear  when  none  solicited  her 
gifts." 

Here  Virgil  puts  forward  the  idea  that  in  the 
time  of  primitive  communism  the  soil  of  the 
earth  was  much  more  fertile,  and  showered 
its  gifts  on  mankind  without  effort.  This 
notion  corresponds  to  the  Biblical  account  of 


174    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN   ANTIQUITY 

Paradise.  Only  after  the  fall  from  grace  did 
the  earth  bear  thorns  and  thistles.  In  Virgil 
the  hope  persisted  indestructible  that  the 
Golden  Age,  the  reign  of  Saturn,  would  soon 
return,  and  bring  back  to  mankind  the 
blessings  of  that  primitive  period  (Bucolics, 
Eclogue  4)  : 

"  The  mighty  line  of  cycles  begins  its  round 
anew.  Now  too  the  maiden  Astraea  ^  returns, 
the  reign  of  Saturn  returns.  Now  a  new 
generation  of  men  is  sent  down  from  the 
height  of  heaven.  Only  be  thou  gracious  to 
the  birth  of  the  child,^  beneath  whom  the 
iron  brood  shall  first  begin  to  quail,  and  the 
golden  race  to  arise  in  all  the  world." 

And  Horace  sings  of  the  simplicity  of  the 

^  The  maiden  Astraea  is  the  goddess  of  righteousness, 
but,  according  to  Roman  ideas,  had  left  the  earth  in 
the  iron  age.  When  this  goddess  returns,  it  would 
signify  the  beginning  of  a  new  age  of  righteousness,  or 
the  Golden  Age. 

2  By  child  Virgil  here  means  the  child  of  his  pro- 
tector and  benefactor  Pollio,  who  was  Roman  Consul. 
The  poem  was  written  about  the  year  42  B.C.  in  honour 
of  the  said  Pollio,  whose  wife  was  near  her  confinement. 
Catholic  theologians  perceive  in  this  Eclogue  a  prophecy 
relating  to  Jesus  and  Mary.  In  any  case,  this  verse  is 
very  remarkable,  showing  as  it  does  some  acquaintance 
with  Jewish  Messianic  ideas. 


ROMAN  SOCIAL   CRITICS  175 

barbarians  and  their  communism,  and  con- 
demns riches  (Odes,  III.  23)  : 

"  The  Scythians  of  the  plains, 
More  happy  are  housed  in  their  wandering  wains ; 
More  blessed  the  Getan  stout, 
Who  not  from  acres  marked  and  meted  out 
Reaps  his  free  trees  and  grain, 
Pour  into  the  Capitol, 
Or  down  the  nearest  ocean  roll, 
Our  jewels,  gems  and  gold  attire. 
Nutriment  of  loss  and  miseries  untold." 

This  yearning  after  the  simple  natural  life 
remote  from  luxury,  and  the  complexities 
and  cares  and  conflicts  of  civilisation  was 
widespread  in  cultured  circles  in  the  first 
century  of  the  Empire.  This  is  the  distinct 
expression  of  the  stoical  influence,  which  is 
embodied  most  definitely  in  Seneca  the 
philosopher  (son  of  the  Rhetorician,  born 
4  B.C.,  died  A.D.  65,  by  his  own  hand,  in 
consequence  of  Nero's  condemnation  to  death 
hanging  over  him).  In  his  Letters  (90)  he 
describes  the  fascination  of  the  simple  natural 
life,  and  of  primitive  communism,  and  ex- 
claims : 

"  How  happy  was  the  primitive  age  when 
the  bounties  of  nature  lay  in  common  and 
were    used    promiscuously.      They    enjoyed 


176     SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

all  nature  in  common,  which  thus  gave  them 
secure  possession  of  the  public  wealth.  Why 
should  I  not  think  them  the  richest  of  all 
people  among  whom  there  was  not  to  be 
found  one  poor  man  ? 

"  But  avarice  broke  in  upon  a  condition 
so  happily  ordained,  and  by  its  eagerness  to 
lay  something  away  and  to  turn  it  to  its  own 
private  use,  made  all  things  the  property  of 
others,  and  reduced  itself  from  boundless 
wealth  to  straitened  need.  It  was  avarice 
that  introduced  poverty  and  by  craving  much 
lost  all.  And  so  although  she  now  tries  to 
make  good  her  loss,  although  she  adds  one 
estate  to  another,  evicting  a  neighbour  either 
by  buying  him  out  or  by  wronging  him, 
although  she  extends  her  country  estates  to 
the  size  of  provinces  and  defines  ownership  as 
meaning  extensive  travel  through  one's  own 
property — in  spite  of  all  these  efforts  of  hers  no 
enlargement  of  our  boundaries  will  bring  us 
back  to  the  condition  from  which  we  have 
departed.  It  was  possible  for  no  man  either 
to  surpass  another  or  to  fall  short  of  him. 
What  there  was  was  divided  among  unquar- 
relling  friends.  Not  yet  had  the  stronger 
begun  to  lay  hands  upon  the  weaker.     Not 


ROMAN  SOCIAL   CRITICS  177 

yet  had  the  miser,  by  hiding  away  what  lay 
before  him,  shut  off  his  neighbour  from  even 
the  necessities  of  hfe.  Each  cared  as  much 
for  his  neighbour  as  for  himself/' 

Seneca  was,  in  fact,  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able thinkers  that  Rome  produced.  He  extols 
the  day  of  death  as  the  birthday  of  everlasting 
life  and  the  peaceful  blessedness  of  beyond. 
He  vigorously  recommends  benevolence  to- 
wards slaves,  and  even  towards  enemies.  His 
mental  outlook  was  in  many  respects  so  near 
to  Christianity  that  many  Church  Fathers 
supposed  him  to  have  been  a  friend  of  St. 
Paul.  This  assumption,  however,  has  been 
proved  to  be  unfounded.  Seneca  is  merely 
another  proof  that  the  later  moral  teaching 
of  the  Stoa  tended  in  the  same  direction  as 
the  Jewish  teaching  in  Palestine,  or  the 
Hellenic- Jewish  teaching  in  Alexandria. 
Collectively  they  were  the  outcome  of  the 
intellectual,  social  and  political  development 
of  the  Roman  Empire  during  the  last  cen- 
tury of  the  Republican  period  and  the  first 
century  of  the  Empire. 

The  yearning  for  a  harmonious,  natural, 
personally  free  social  order  ran  parallel  with 
the  intellectual  search  for  a  higher  order  of 

M 


178    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

ethics  and  religion.     And  whenever  a  beheving 
world  seeks  for  a  noble,  humane  and  pure 
morality,   the  result  is  a  spiritualisation  of 
doctrine  and  of  belief  in  God.     We  have  seen 
this  in  the  case  of  the  Jewish  prophets.     As 
soon  as  the  conviction  of  a  moral  world  order 
made  headway  among  them,   Jehovah  lost 
his   local   and    physical   characteristics    and 
was   elevated   to   the   position   of   universal 
God  of  justice  and  righteousness.     The  con- 
cept of  Jehovah  became  more  abstract.     And 
this  also  came  to  pass  on  the  comprehensive 
stage  of  the  Roman  Empire.     The  old  gods 
lost    their   prestige.     Cultured    Roman   men 
and    women    turned    to    the    stoical    moral 
philosophy    as    well    as    to    Oriental    cults. 
Egyptian  and  Asiatic  mysteries  exercised   a 
fascination  over  Roman  minds,  and  Judaism 
gained  many  adherents  among  them.     This 
was   already   happening  in   Hellenic   circles. 
The  five  books  of  Moses  (the  Pentateuch)  had 
been    translated    into    Greek    in    the    third 
century  B.C.,  and  were  known  under  the  title 
of  the  Septuagint.     In   the  catastrophic  up- 
heavals    throughout     the     broad      Roman- 
Hellenic  dominions,  evoked  by  the  world  wars 
of  Pompey  and  Caesar,  as  also  by  the  social 


ROMAN  SOCIAL   CRITICS  179 

fissures  and  internal  struggles  in  the  Roman 
Empire,  the  nobler  spirits  were  easily  sus- 
ceptible to  the  new  ideas  and  sentiments 
which  arose,  partly  from  the  agitations  of  the 
m.asses  of  the  people,  and  partly  from  the 
connection  with  Greek  and  Oriental  thought. 
A  new  intellectual  epoch  was  about  to  break 
upon  mankind.     We  mean  Christianity. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  new  ideal  world  did 
not  make  the  same  impression  upon  the 
various  sections  and  classes  of  people  in  the 
Roman  dominion.  Material  position,  educa- 
tion, tradition,  the  political  and  geographical 
conditions  of  the  manifold  groups  of  men  were 
too  diverse  to  permit  of  the  exercise  of  an 
equal  degree  and  kind  of  influence.  As  a 
whole,  however,  the  effects  were  of  two  kinds. 
The  dispossessed  and  subjugated  aimed  above 
all  at  a  just  distribution  of  the  goods  of  the 
world,  at  freedom  from  oppression,  dependence 
and  the  anxieties  of  existence.  Their  funda- 
mental ideas  were  social  righteousness,  the 
putting  down  of  the  proud  and  the  rich,  and 
the  setting  up  of  the  lowly  and  poor.  Their 
goal  was  a  communistic  revolution.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  noble  and  learned  sections, 
who    were    influenced    by    mental    motives, 


180    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

sought  after  religious  consolation,  a  new 
belief  and  firm  metaphysical  truths,  in  order 
to  allay  the  unrest  of  their  souls  and  to  fill 
the  void  in  their  hearts,  which  was  caused  by 
the  dissolution  of  the  old  gods;  in  other 
words,  they  desired  to  gain  a  new  philosophy, 
a  new  religion.  We  have  therefore  to  do 
with  two  tendencies :  communism  and 
doctrinal  truth.  The  first  tendency  gradually 
enveloped  the  masses,  the  other  embraced 
the  higher  and  cultured  elements.  The  latter 
section  created  the  Christian  theology,  the 
disputes  over  dogmas  and  orthodoxy.  Both 
tendencies  were  combined  in  many  theological 
leaders  of  the  masses. 

We  do  not  propose  here  to  deal  with  religious 
and  ethical  dogmas,  as  we  are  not  writing 
a  history  of  the  origin  of  Christianity,  but 
a  history  of  socialist  thought.  Our  task  is 
therefore  confined  to  elucidating  the  com- 
munistic trend  of  thought  in  Christianity,  as 
it  was  chiefly  through  this  agency  that 
Christianity  became  the  ideology  of  the 
proletariat  in  the  Roman  Empire.  We  are 
now  in  a  position  to  answer  the  question 
thrown  out  in  the  preceding  chapter — Why 
the  Roman  proletariat,  with  all  its  struggles 


ROMAN  SOCIAL  CRITICS  181 

and  opportunities,  did  not  evolve  any  com- 
munistic system  of  thought.  Christianity 
was  the  communism  of  the  Roman  proletariat. 
Just  as  the  ruling  sections  of  Rome  were 
incapable  of  creating  their  own  philosophy 
and  religion,  but  took  over  these  from  the 
defeated  Hellenes,  so  also  the  Roman  and 
ItaHan  lower  classes  were  not  able  to  create 
their  own  proletarian  ideology,  but  received  it 
from  the  envoys  of  Jewish-Hellenic  circles  of 
culture. 


CHAPTER  VII 

PRIMITIVE    CHRISTIANITY 

I.  Pre-Christian  Palestine. 

In  the  last  two  centuries  B.C.  the  pohtical 
and  moral  conditions  of  the  Jews  had  become 
immeasurably  tragic.  After  their  return 
from  the  Babylonian  exile,  the  Jews  formed 
themselves  into  a  religious  community.  The 
government  was  theocratic,  but  politically 
Palestine  formed  an  insignificant  province, 
first  of  the  Persian  Empire,  then  of  the  Mace- 
donian Empire,  and,  after  the  fall  of  the 
latter,  it  became  a  part  of  Syria,  under  the 
rule  of  Seleukidians,  who  gradually  effected 
the  Hellenisation  of  the  Jews.  But  when 
Antiochus  Epiphanes  (i68)  tried  to  root  out 
by  force  the  worship  of  Jehovah,  and  had 
made  many  martyrs,  the  pious  inhabitants 
of  the  country  rebelled,  defeated  the  Syrian 
troops,  and  achieved  political  independence 
under  Judas  Maccabeus.  These  few  years  of 
the    deepest   humiliation    and   of   wonderful 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  183 

salvation  strengthened  Judaism  to  an  extra- 
ordinary extent.  From  this  time  dates  the 
Book  of  Daniel,  in  which  the  destruction  of 
the  Imperialist  world  empire  and  the  emer- 
gence of  the  kingdom  of  God  under  the 
supremacy  of  the  Jews  is  prophesied  :  **  And 
as  for  the  rest  of  the  beasts,  their  dominion 
was  taken  away.  And  behold,  there  came 
with  the  clouds  of  heaven  one  like  unto  the 
Son  of  Man,  and  he  came  even  to  the  ancient 
of  days.  And  the  kingdom  and  the  dominion 
and  the  greatness  of  the  kingdoms  under  the 
whole  heaven  shall  be  given  to  the  people 
of  the  saints  of  the  Most  High,  whose  kingdom 
is  an  everlasting  possession." 

A  kingdom  of  righteousness  is  to  be  estab- 
lished, under  Jewish  supremacy,  in  place  of 
the  predatory  Imperialist  empire.  This  was 
the  ideal. 

Meanwhile,  government  was  carried  on  by 
the  Maccabees.  Three  tendencies  manifested 
themselves  among  the  Jews  :  the  Sadducees, 
the  Pharisees  and  the  Essenes.  The  Saddu- 
cees were  composed  of  the  priestly  nobles 
and  other  educated  persons,  who  inclined 
towards  Hellenism,  and  did  not  believe  in  a 
special  Jewish  mission.     They  were  the  states- 


184    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

manlike,  practical  politicians  to  whom  the 
idea  of  a  Jewish  world  dominion  appeared 
impossible  and  ridiculous.  They  formed  a 
small  minority.  The  Pharisees  comprised 
the  middle  classes,  which  observed  strict 
Jewish  legal  ordinances  :  the  Jews  were  to 
become  a  holy  people,  a  nation  of  priests. 
National  and  religious  sentiments  were  most 
closely  associated  amongst  the  Pharisees. 
The  third  tendency  was  the  Essenean  :  a 
small  portion  of  the  Jews  turned  aside,  as 
related  above,  from  all  national  and  State 
objectives.  The  Essenes  aspired  to  a  morally 
pure  humanity,  a  real  kingdom  of  God,  with- 
out State  or  coercion,  without  laws  from  the 
government  or  the  priesthood,  and  where  the 
sole  service  rendered  would  be  the  voluntary 
performance  of  social  tasks  for  the  benefit  of 
the  community.  They  held  themselves  aloof 
from  all  party  disputes,  from  all  thirst  for 
dominion,  and  were  unperturbed  by  the 
quarrels  between  Sadducees  and  Pharisees. 

The  political  independence  of  Judsea  lasted 
for  about  a  century.  The  national  economic 
life  became  vigorous,  agriculture  flourished, 
handicrafts  and  industry  were  esteemed, 
and  even  the  Rabbis  and  scholars  regarded 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY        185 

it  as  a  duty  to  perform  physical  labour  as  the 
basis  of  their  existence.  Thrift,  trade,  the 
piety  and  morality  of  the  lower  middle-class 
were  the  prevailing  sentiments.  This  con- 
dition was  soon  to  change.  In  the  year  63 
Pompey  conquered  Syria,  invaded  Palestine, 
and  in  the  midst  of  the  priestly  disputes  which 
were  raging  in  Jerusalem  the  Roman  cohorts 
stormed  the  city,  and — to  the  indignation 
of  the  Jews — Pompey  entered  the  holy  of 
holies  of  the  Temple.  Henceforth  the  country 
lost  its  independence,  the  Jewish  kings 
became  dependent  upon  Rome,  Roman  pro- 
curators levied  tribute  on  the  people,  who 
resented  the  Roman  oppression,  partly  by 
conspiracies  and  insurrections,  and  partly 
by  passive  resistance.  The  old  hope  of  a 
coming  kingdom  of  God  blazed  forth  with 
passionate  ardour.  Have  the  prophets  pro- 
phesied falsely?  Has  not  Judaism  kept  the 
commandments  of  God  in  the  most  trying 
times?  And  has  the  blood  of  the  Jewish 
martyrs  been  spilled  in  vain  ?  No !  The 
Messiah,  the  King  anointed  by  God,  must 
soon  appear,  and  assume  world  dominion. 
Popular  leaders  sprang  up,  new  parties  were 
formed,  among  which  was  one  with  terrorist 


186    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

tactics;  the  national  soil  was  in  a  state  of 
upheaval.  Nor  was  this  all.  The  nation 
was  split  socially.  The  sentiments  which 
prevailed  at  that  time  are  indicated  in  the 
Gospel  of  Luke,  where  Mary,  the  mother  of 
Jesus,  on  the  discovery  of  her  pregnancy, 
praises  God  and  says  of  him :  "  He  has 
scattered  the  proud.  He  hath  put  down  the 
mighty  from  their  seats  and  hath  exalted 
them  of  low  degree.  The  hungry  he  hath 
filled  with  good  things,  and  the  rich  he  hath 
sent  empty  away  "  (i.  51-53). 

Internally  and  externally  Judaea  was  a 
seething  furnace  in  which  the  most  sublime 
national  and  social  passions  blazed.  As  was 
so  often  the  case  in  Jewish  history,  when  heavy 
oppressions  weighed  upon  the  people,  or 
when  world-shaking  political  events  were 
happening,  the  feeling  spread  among  the  Jews  : 
the  time  is  fulfilled,  and  the  kingdom  of  God 
is  at  hand ;  the  arrival  of  the  Messiah  cannot 
be  far  off. 


2.  Jesus. 

"  Not  by  might  nor  by  power,  but  by  my 
spirit  "  (Zech.  iv.  6). 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  187 

In  this  overheated  atmosphere  Jesus 
appeared. 

He  was  born  in  a  handworker's  family  in 
Nazareth,  in  North  Palestine,  attended  a 
Jewish  school  in  that  village,  listened  to  the 
speeches  in  the  Synagogue,  made  a  pilgrimage 
each  year  to  Jerusalem  to  the  Feast  of  the 
Passover,  Jerusalem  being  the  centre  of  the 
intense  mental  life  of  the  Jews. 

The  bent  of  his  mind  was  soon  apparent. 
Even  as  a  youth  he  was  in  the  thick  of  the 
fierce  strivings  of  his  people.  He  was  fond 
of  Isaiah,  and  read  the  wonderful  passage, 
"  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me.  Because 
he  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  the  gospel 
to  the  poor.  He  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the 
broken-hearted,  to  proclaim  release  to  the 
captive,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind, 
to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  to 
preach  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord " 
(Luke  iv.  17-20). 

Such  was  the  prologue.  It  summarised 
the  life  of  Jesus.  He  soon  attracted  the 
attention  of  his  fellows.  Nobody  could  be 
indifferent  to  his  personality.  His  inter- 
vention was  challenging.  Many  perceived 
in  him  one  of  the  future  leaders  in  the  libera- 


188    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN   ANTIQUITY 

tion  struggle  against  the  Romans,  and  en- 
deavoured to  gain  his  support  for  one  of  the 
rebelHons  in  course  of  preparation.  For  what 
other  purpose  had  God  endowed  him  with 
such  great  gifts?  And  what  object  could  be 
more  exalted  than  to  free  his  sorely  oppressed 
people  ? 

At  first  Jesus  seems  to  have  been  not 
immune  from  this  temptation.  The  national 
passions  burned  fiercely  and  inflamed  so 
many  pure-minded  men  for  the  liberation 
struggle  against  Rome.  Why  not  him  too? 
From  this  short  period  of  solidarity  with 
his  people  the  saying  probably  dates,  "  I 
come  not  to  bring  peace,  but  a  sword,"  as  it  is 
quite  incongruous  with  the  later  period  in 
which  it  is  placed  by  the  Gospel  of  Matthew 
(x.  34).  Gradually  Jesus  attained  to  quite 
a  different  way  of  thinking.  Not  by  the 
sword,  not  by  force,  but  by  spiritual  and 
peaceful  means,  by  sacrifice  and  inward 
purification  will  Judaea,  as  well  as  Rome,  be 
redeemed  from  evil.  Temporal  power  fails 
and  must  always  fail.  Temporal  power 
derives  from  the  principle  of  evil. 

The  whole  plan  of  insurrection  then  appeared 
to   him   as   a   temptation   of   Satan.     Forty 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  189 

days  and  forty  nights  he  wrestled  with  it  in 
the  wilderness.  And  if  we  should  defeat 
the  Romans  and  win  their  empire  and  their 
glory?  What  then?  Would  mankind  be 
any  the  better,  to  receive  in  exchange  for  it 
an  empire  of  Pharisees,  of  human  ordinances 
and  priestly  regulations?  No.  "It  is 
written,  Thou  shalt  worship  God  and  serve 
him  alone."  And  what  the  will  of  God  is 
has  been  proclaimed  to  mankind  by  the 
prophets. 

Social  righteousness  and  the  redemption 
of  the  poor,  contempt  and  condemnation  of 
riches,  abolition  of  all  coercive  rule,  love 
to  all  men,  a  humanity  which  bears  the  king- 
dom of  God  within  it,  in  the  life  of  its  soul 
— such  is  the  secret  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

And  all  the  revolutionaries  and  nationalists 
forsook  him.  But  the  simple  people  flocked 
around  him.  He  gained  supporters  and 
disciples.  As  the  multitude  assembled  about 
him  he  ascended  a  mountain  and  spoke  : 

"  Blessed  are  the  poor,  they  that  mourn, 
the  meek,  the  merciful  and  the  peacemakers, 
they  which  are  persecuted  for  righteousness' 
sake.  Blessed  are  they  that  resist  not  evil, 
but  return  good  for  evil.     Blessed  are  they 


190    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

which  do  not  have  Courts  of  Justice,  and  know 
not  penal  laws,  but  love  their  enemies,  and 
pray  for  their  persecutors.  For  all  men  have 
but  one  Father,  who  is  in  heaven.  May  his 
kingdom  come,  his  will  be  done.  For  his  is 
the  kingdom,  the  power  and  the  glory  for 
ever." 

Jesus  said  to  his  well-tried  comrades : 
political  struggles,  revolutionary  insurrections, 
national  wars,  murder  and  sudden  death, 
legal  reforms  and  national  autonomy  will 
not  help  you  to  realise  the  ideal  of  the  old 
prophecies.  The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  of 
this  world — it  does  not  mean  the  domination 
and  power  of  the  Jews  over  all  peoples,  of 
amassing  more  wealth  than  other  nations, 
nor  does  it  mean  observing  the  Temple  service, 
or  the  Synagogue  ceremonies,  priestly  purifi- 
cation and  juridical  ordinances,  nor  the 
keeping  alive  of  patriotic  interests  and  holding 
aloft  national  colours.  All  these  things  are 
ephemeral.  The  kingdom  of  God  rather 
means  :  regeneration  of  the  whole  of  life 
on  the  l>asis  of  infinite  love  of  humanity — 
loving-kindness  towards  all  who  are  weak 
and  errant,  endless  compassion  upon  all  men, 
the  melting  of  all  class  differences,  labour  in 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIANITY  191 

common  for  all.  This  alone  will  be  enduring, 
and  redeem  mankind  from  evil.  This  is  the 
kingdom  of  God. 

Jesus  was  the  spiritual  quintessence  of 
the  prophetical  development,  as  we  have  out- 
lined it  in  Chapter  I.  sections  2  and  3.  His 
influence  was  avowedly  anti-national  and, 
in  the  opinion  of  the  Jewish  authorities,  also 
anti-religious.  His  propaganda  was  com- 
munist. It  was  the  later  stoical  ethics, 
purified,  enriched  and  deepened  by  the  results 
of  the  intense  religious  culture  of  Exilic 
and  post-Exilic  Judaism.  No  Hellene  ever 
had  the  consciousness  of  sin,  and  the  feeling 
of  holiness,  of  fear  of  God  and  joy  in  God 
to  the  same  extent  as  the  Jews  in  the  time 
of  Jesus. 

It  was  this  feeling  which  enabled  the  Jews 
to  rebel  against  the  Roman  tyranny,  and  to 
carry  on  for  years  a  heroic  struggle  with 
prodigal  sacrifices.  But  Jesus  went  beyond 
Judaism.  He  broke  through  national  bound- 
aries, and  destroyed  the  traditional  religious 
structure,  which  had  been  erected  with  so 
much  suffering  and  anguish  of  heart  by  the 
great  Masters.  He  was  a  revolutionary, 
although  a  peaceful  one,  but  his  peacefulness 


192    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

was  surprisingly  revolutionary.  Perhaps  the 
Jews  would  have  forgiven  him  everything  if 
he  had  used  his  popularity  to  further  the 
national  revolt  against  Rome.  They  begged 
for  the  life  of  Barabbas,  who  was  to  have 
been  crucified  on  account  of  insurrection 
against  the  Roman  domination  (Mark  xv. 
7).  But  Jesus  and  his  disciples  were  already 
so  remote  from  Jewish  life  that  the  evangelist 
Mark  described  the  national-patriotic  deed 
of  Barabbas  as  a  murder.  From  the  point 
of  view  of  religion,  politics  and  social  arrange- 
ments, Jesus  stood  outside  the  pale  of  Jewish 
and  Roman  civilisation,  and  had  to  be  con- 
demned and  hung  on  the  cross. 

3.  Communism  in  the  Primitive  Communities. 

There  was  not  one  among  the  immediate 
disciples  of  Jesus  who  had  distinguished 
himself  by  his  personality  or  knowledge, 
or  was  in  a  position  to  continue  the  work  of 
the  Master  on  the  same  lines.  The  manner 
in  which  the  authors  of  the  Gospels  relate 
so  much  that  is  secondary  or  legendary  in 
the  life  of  their  hero,  and  enclose  the  ever- 
lasting kernel  of  his  spirit  in  worthless  husks, 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  193 

is  sufficient  proof  that  they  did  not  compre- 
hend Jesus.  The  period  in  which  he  exerted 
his  decisive  influence  and  himself  became 
conscious  of  his  mission  was  also  too  short 
to  permit  of  training  worthy  successors. 
These  circumstances,  some  years  later,  pro- 
vided Paul  with  the  opportunity  of  assuming 
the  role  of  organiser  of  Christianity.  Paul 
was  a  stranger  to  the  Jewish-proletarian 
thoughts  and  sentiments.  He  was  a  Pharisee 
and  man  of  learning,  whose  conscience  was 
extremely  troubled  by  the  impossibility  of 
fulfilling  the  accumulating  laws  and  prescrip- 
tions. The  seventh  chapter  of  his  Epistle 
to  the  Romans  gives  us  a  profound  insight 
into  the  conflicts  which  raged  in  his  mind 
over  the  substance  and  influence  of  the  Jewish 
laws.  It  is  not  impossible  that  in  this  he 
was  also  influenced  by  Stoical  and  Gnostic 
interpretations  of  the  laws  as  expressing 
the  corruptibility  of  man  fallen  from  the 
primeval  state.  Nevertheless,  Paul  assimi- 
lated the  teaching  of  Jesus,  so  far  as  it  could 
be  assimilated  by  the  intellect  and  con- 
science of  a  learned  man.  His  whole 
personality  and  education  constrained  him 
to  impart  a  dogmatic  bias  to  this  teaching. 


194    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

His  strong  personality,  marked  by  holiness, 
overflowing  love  of  humanity,  and  boundless 
doctrinal  ardour,  forced  the  proletarian  and 
communist  elements  into  the  background. 
These  elements  fought  against  St.  Paul  for 
a  sufficiently  long  time,  but  his  strength  of 
will  and  self-sacrificing  propaganda  assured 
him  the  victory.  The  new  doctrine  triumphed 
over  the  communist  practice.  It  was  his 
great  other-worldliness,  the  complete  detach- 
ment of  St.  Paul  from  the  material  interests 
of  life,  which  rendered  it  easy  for  him  so  to 
despise  the  institutions  of  this  world  that  to 
maintain  opposition  against  them  was  not 
worth  the  trouble.  The  main  point  was  the 
salvation  of  the  soul,  which  was  assured  by 
belief  in  Jesus.  As  long  as  there  was  an 
opportunity  to  keep  alive  this  belief,  it  was  a 
matter  of  indifference  who  exercised  temporal 
power,  or  how  it  was  exercised. 

In  the  years  which  immediately  followed 
the  martyrdom  of  Jesus  the  first  communities, 
which  were  almost  exclusively  composed 
of  Jewish  proletarians,  were  conducted  either 
on  a  communistic  basis,  or  in  the  spirit  of 
the  communistic  ideal.  They  were  proud  of 
their  poverty,   they  were   the   "  Ebionites," 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  195 

the  poor  and  needy,  the  trustees  of  social 
righteousness.  "  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and 
Mammon,"  declared  Jesus  to  the  disciples, 
in  his  plain  and  decisive  manner.  And  as  they 
desired  to  serve  God,  they  turned  their  backs 
on  Mammon.  The  primitive  communities 
either  lived  on  communistic  principles,  or 
aspired  to  the  communist  mode  of  living. 
"  And  all  that  believed  were  together,  and 
had  all  things  common;  and  they  sold  their 
possessions  and  goods,  and  parted  them 
to  all,  according  as  every  man  had  need  " 
(Acts  of  the  Apostles,  h.  44,  45).  "  And  the 
multitude  of  them  that  beheved  were  of  one 
heart  and  of  one  soul,  and  not  one  of  them 
said  that  aught  of  the  things  which  he  pos- 
sessed was  his  own;  but  they  had  all  things 
common  (Ihid.  iv.  32).  Riches  were  con- 
sidered a  disgrace,  and  poverty  bore  an 
almost  holy  character.  All  were  convinced 
that  the  service  of  Mammon,  the  thirst  for 
wealth  and  riches,  was  inevitably  bound  up 
with  sin,  whilst  poverty  signified  a  renuncia- 
tion of  worldly  pleasures  and  temporal  power. 
The  increase  in  the  number  of  Christians, 
the  diffusion  of  the  communities,  the  ascend- 
ancy of  the  Pauline  propaganda  and  conception 


196    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

of  Christianity  weakened  communism,  which 
was  supplanted  by  generous  almsgiving  and 
a  benevolent  provision  for  the  poor  brothers 
and  sisters.  Gradually,  however,  class  differ- 
ences made  their  appearance  in  Christendom ; 
among  the  Christians  there  were  rich  and  poor, 
employers  and  workers,  and  the  old  brother- 
liness  disappeared.  The  class  antagonism 
found  its  theoretical  expression  in  the  struggle 
between  "  faith  "  and  "  works."  This  con- 
flict is  reflected  in  the  Epistle  of  James, 
the  author  of  which  contrasted  the  doctrines 
of  Jesus  with  those  of  Paul :  "  What  doth  it 
profit  if  a  man  say  he  hath  faith,  but  have  not 
works?  can  that  faith  save  him?  "  The 
Epistle  of  James  describes  the  pride  of  the 
rich  in  their  belief,  their  claim  to  special 
honour  in  the  Christian  assemblies,  their 
hypocrisy  towards  their  poor  fellow-believers, 
and  declares  :  "So  faith  apart  from  works 
is  dead."  He  reminds  the  rich  that  God 
chose  the  poor,  who  are  still  exploited  by  the 
rich,  and  dragged  before  the  judges.  There- 
fore, exclaims  the  author,  "Go  to  now,  ye 
rich  men,  weep  and  howl  for  your  miseries 
that  are  coming  upon  you.  Your  riches 
are  corrupted,  and  your  garments  are  moth- 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  197 

eaten.  Your  gold  and  your  silver  are  rusted. 
Ye  have  heaped  treasure  together  in  the  last 
days.  Behold,  the  hire  of  the  labourers  who 
have  mowed  your  fields  which  is  of  you  kept 
back  by  fraud  crieth  out,  and  the  cries  of  them 
that  have  reaped  have  entered  into  the  ears 
of  the  Lord  "  (James  v.  1-4). 

The  complaints  in  the  Epistle  of  James 
need  not,  however,  be  generalised.  In  the 
first  three  centuries  after  Christ  the  commun- 
istic spirit  was  still  strong  in  Christian  com- 
munities. Even  if  passive  obedience  was 
rendered  to  the  laws  and  institutions  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  the  majority  of  Christians 
were  not  at  all  disposed  to  recognise  them  as 
being  just.  The  Greek  and  Latin  Fathers 
of  the  Church  strictly  adhered,  at  least  in 
theory,  to  the  anti-governmental  and  com- 
munistic doctrines;  they  condemned  private 
property,  and  the  claims  of  the  State  to 
power,  military  service  and  patriotism. 


4.  The  Spirit  of  Christianity  and  of  the 
Patristics. 

The  third  and  fourth  centuries  of  the  youth 
of  Christianity  and  the  influence  of  the  Greek 


198    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

and  Latin  Church  Fathers  bequeathed  to 
the  middle  ages  a  social  tradition  which 
was  hostile  to  the  dominion  of  Mammon 
and  the  supremacy  of  private  economic, 
worldly  and  State  interests,  and  favoured  the 
ascetic  and  communistic  modes  of  life.  More 
especially  was  it  the  accounts  given  by 
"  Acts "  of  the  primitive  community  at 
Jerusalem  which  kept  alive  the  longing  for 
a  communal  life  in  the  breasts  of  the  nobler 
members  of  the  new  religion.  Everything 
which  Ernest  Renan  has  written  about  the 
Apostolic  age  is  excellent,  from  a  psycho- 
logical point  of  view,  and  reveals  deep  insight 
into  the  Judaic-Christian  world  : 

"  All,  then,  lived  in  common,  having  but 
one  heart  and  one  soul.  No  one  possessed 
aught  that  was  his  own.  In  becoming  a 
disciple  of  Jesus  a  man  sold  all  he  had  and 
gave  the  proceeds  to  the  society.  The  con- 
cord was  perfect;  there  was  no  quarrel  over 
dogma,  no  dispute  about  precedence.  The 
tender  memory  of  Jesus  effaced  all  dissensions. 
Joy  was  in  all  hearts,  keen  and  profound. 
(No  literature  has  so  often  repeated  the  word 
*  love  '  as  the  New  Testament.)  The  morality 
was  austere.     They  grouped   themselves  by 


PRIMITIVE  CHRISTIANITY  199 

households  to  pray  and  give  themselves 
up  to  the  ecstatic  exercises.  The  recollection 
of  these  first  two  or  three  years  lingered  as 
that  of  an  earthly  paradise,  which  Christianity 
was  thenceforth  to  pursue  in  all  its  dreams, 
and  was  vainly  to  seek  to  recover  "  (Ernest 
Renan,  The  Apostles). 

Just  as  the  Golden  Age  formed  the  ideal  of 
the  ancient  poets  and  thinkers,  so  the  primi- 
tive community  of  Jerusalem  was  the  model 
for  the  Church  Fathers  and  all  earnest 
Christians.  In  the  course  of  the  first  cen- 
tury this  ideal  became  transfused  with  the 
millennial  expectations,  as  well  as  with  the 
most  valuable  results  of  Hellenic-Roman 
thought ;  the  communistic,  religio-ethical  and 
natural  rights  doctrines  of  Plato,  of  the  Stoa 
and  neo-Platonists,  which  collectively  were 
idealist,  that  is,  they  regarded  the  idea,  the 
spiritual,  the  godly,  as  the  primary  supreme 
power  in  human  life,  to  which  the  latter  must 
subordinate  itself ;  the  ideal  was  the  real  and 
typical. 

The  Church  Fathers — Barnabas  (in  the 
first  third  of  the  second  century),  Justin  the 
Martyr  (about  the  middle  of  the  second 
century),  Clement  of  Alexandria  (in  the  last 


200    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

quarter  of  the  second  and  first  quarter  of  the 
third  century),  his  successor  Origen  (died  254), 
Tertullian  (contemporary  of  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria, flourished  in  North  Africa),  his 
successor  Cyprian  (contemporary  of  Origen), 
Lactantius  (flourished  at  the  beginning  of 
the  fourth  century  in  North  Africa,  Asia 
Minor  and  Trier),  Basilius  of  Caesarea  (died 
379),  John  Chrysostom  (Bishop  of  Constanti- 
nople, died  407),  Ambrosius  (Bishop  of 
Mailand,  died  397),  Augustine  (354-430, 
Bishop  of  Hippo,  North  Africa)  were  the 
custodians  of  this  religious,  ethical  and 
philosophical  knowledge,  and  all  of  them 
were  partly  hostile  to  Mammon,  and  partly 
inclined  towards  communism,  or  at  least  in 
theory  they  regarded  the  communistic  way 
of  living  as  virtuous,  and  as  the  ideal  of  a 
Christian. 

Barnabas,  who  was  nearest  to  the  Apostolic 
age,  exhorted,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Christians, 
which  is  ascribed  to  him,  "  to  communicate 
in  all  things  with  thy  neighbour ;  thou  shalt 
not  call  things  thine  own;  for  if  ye  are 
partakers  in  common  of  things  that  are 
incorruptible,  how  much  more  should  ye  be 
of  those  things  which  are  perishable." 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  201 

Justin  the  Martyr  appealed  to  the  Gospels 
(Matthew  v.  42,  45;  vi.  19,  20,  25,  31; 
Mark  viii.  36;  Luke  vi.  34;  ix.  25;  xii.  22, 
31,  34),  and  declared  in  his  Apology  (I.  14, 
15),  "  We  who  loved  the  path  to  riches  and 
possessions  above  any  other  now  produce 
what  we  have  in  common,  and  give  to  every- 
one who  needs."  Clement  of  Alexandria, 
who  was  influenced  most  strongly  by  Stoic 
ideas,  declared  :  "  Let  it  then  be  granted  that 
good  things  are  the  property  only  of  good 
men,  and  Christians  are  good.  Accordingly 
good  things  are  possessed  by  Christians  alone. 
But  what  is  possession?  It  is  not  he  who 
has  and  keeps  it,  but  he  who  gives  away,  he 
is  rich  "  (Pcedag.  III.  6).  He  is  also  respon- 
sible for  the  saying,  "  Lust  of  money  is  the 
citadel  of  sin."  In  these  opinions  he  was 
followed  by  Origen. 

Tertulhan,  although  the  son  of  a  Roman 
captain  in  Carthage,  was  an  implacable 
opponent  of  the  Roman  Imperial  power,  and 
considered  it  to  be  incompatible  with  the 
duties  of  a  Christian  to  occupy  any  position 
in  a  heathen  State  :  "  There  is  no  agreement 
between  the  divine  and  the  human  sacrament, 
the  standard  of  Christ  and  the  standard  of 


202    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

the  devil,  the  camp  of  hght  and  the  camp  of 
darkness  "  (Idolatry,  chap.  19).  He  was  also 
neither  patriotic  nor  statesmanlike.  In  the 
year  197  he  wrote  :  "  But  as  those  in  whom 
all  ardour  in  the  pursuit  of  glory  and  honour 
is  dead,  we  have  no  pressing  inducement  to 
take  part  in  your  public  meetings,  nor  is 
there  aught  more  entirely  foreign  to  us  than 
politics.  We  acknowledge  one  all-embracing 
commonwealth — the  world"  (Apology,  chap. 
38).  In  the  same  work,  which  consists  of  a 
defence  of  the  Christians  against  the  heathen 
Romans,  he  also  says  :  "  Only  those  are  good 
brothers  who  are  good  men.  But  on  this 
very  account  perhaps  we  are  regarded  as 
having  less  claim  to  be  held  true  brothers 
that  no  tragedy  makes  a  noise  about  our 
brotherhood,  or  that  the  family  possessions 
which  generally  divide  brotherhood  among 
you  create  fraternal  bonds  among  us.  One  in 
mind  and  soul,  we  do  not  hesitate  to  share 
our  earthly  goods  with  one  another.  All 
things  are  common  among  us  but  our  wives." 
Cyprian  becomes  enthusiastic  in  his  descrip- 
tion of  the  primitive  Jerusalem  community, 
and  says  :  "  All  that  comes  from  God  is  for 
our  common  enjoyment,  and  from  His  benefits 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  203 

and  gifts  none  is  excluded,  so  that  the  whole 
human  race  may  share  equally  in  God's 
munificence.  .  .  .  For  whatsoever  is  of  God 
is  in  our  using  common,  nor  is  any  man  shut 
out  from  His  bounties  and  gifts,  to  the  end 
the  whole  human  race  may  equally  enjoy 
God's  goodness  and  bounty.  In  which 
example  of  equality  the  earthly  possessor 
who  shares  his  gains  and  his  fruits  with  the 
brotherhood,  free  and  just  in  his  voluntary 
bounties,  is  imitator  of  God  the  Father." 

Cyprian  vigorously  declaims  against  the 
attachment  to  property  :  "  You  are  captive 
and  slave  of  your  money.  You  are  fast  in 
the  chains  and  bonds  of  covetousness ;  whom 
Christ  had  once  loosened,  again  you  are 
become  bound." 

Lactantius  was  powerfully  influenced  by 
Plato's  Republic,  and  considered  economic 
communism  to  be  possible,  if  its  disciples 
revered  God  as  the  source  of  wisdom  and 
rehgion.  But  he  was  decisively  against  com- 
munity in  women.  Like  Plato,  Lactantius 
would  also  like  to  see  the  present  age  revert 
to  the  happy  conditions  of  the  primeval 
time,  that  age  of  Saturn,  when  righteousness 
still  dwelt  here  below,  when  the  earth  was 


204    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

yet   the  common  possession  of  all,   and  all 
lived  a  common  life  (Epitome,  35  to  38). 

Basilius  the  Great  (of  Csesarea)  complains 
in  his  Homilies  :  "  Nothing  withstands  the 
power  of  wealth,  and  everything  bows  before 
its  tyranny.  .  .  .  Are  ye  not  thieves  and 
robbers?  The  bread  thou  hast  belongs  to 
the  hungry,  the  mantle  thou  wearest  belongs 
to  the  ill-clad,  the  shoes  thou  hast  on  belong 
to  the  unshod,  the  silver  thou  hast  heaped  up 
belongs  to  the  needy.  Thou  doest  injury  to 
as  many  men  as  thou  couldst  give  to."  His 
fight  against  wealth  did  not  remain  a  negative 
criticism.  Basil  advocated  common  owner- 
ship :  "  We  who  are  gifted  with  reason  show 
ourselves  to  be  more  cruel  than  the  irrational 
animals.  The  latter  make  use  of  the  natural 
products  of  the  earth  as  common  things. 
The  herds  of  sheep  feed  on  one  and  the  same 
pasture.  Horses  browse  all  together  on  one 
and  the  same  meadow.  But  we  make  things 
to  be  our  own  which  are  common,  and  possess 
all  that  belongs  to  the  community."  Finally, 
Basil  recommended  living  according  to  the 
Lycurgian  laws  :  "  Let  us  imitate  the  Hel- 
lenes and  their  mode  of  living,  which  was  full 
of  humanity.     There  are  people  among  them 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  205 

with  the  excellent  habit  of  all  citizens 
assembling  in  one  building  around  a  table 
for  meals  in  common." 

Gregory  Nazianzen  writes  quite  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  communistic  and  natural 
rights  tendencies  of  the  Church  teaching  of 
his  time.  Freedom  and  serfdom,  poverty 
and  riches  are  a  reversion  from  the  primitive 
condition,  and  the  consequence  of  greed, 
envy,  discords,  and  sin.  "  But  thou,  O 
Christ,  lookest  upon  the  original  freedom, 
and  not  upon  the  subsequent  separation, 
supportest  with  all  thy  strength  Nature, 
honourest  the  original  freedom,  and  consolest 
poverty." 

Chrysostom  recommends  communistic  ex- 
periments, and  recalls  the  primitive  com- 
munity of  Jerusalem  :  "  For  they  did  not  give 
in  part  and  in  part  reserve,  nor  yet  in  giving 
all  gave  it  as  their  own,  and  they  lived  more- 
over in  great  abundance.  They  removed  all 
inequality  from  among  them,  and  made  a 
goodly  order.  But  to  show  that  it  is  the 
living  separately  that  is  expensive  and  causes 
poverty,  let  there  be  a  house  in  which  are 
contained  children  and  the  wife  and  the  man. 
Let  the  one  work  at  her  wool,  the  other  bring 


206    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

his  earnings  from  his  outdoor  occupation. 
Now  tell  me  in  which  way  would  these  spend 
most,  by  taking  their  meals  together  and 
occupying  one  house,  or  by  living  separately  ? 
Of  course,  by  living  separately,  for  if  the  ten 
children  must  live  apart  they  would  need  ten 
several  rooms,  ten  tables,  ten  attendants, 
and  the  income  otherwise  in  proportion. 
Is  it  not  for  this  very  reason  that  where  there 
is  a  great  number  of  slaves  they  have  all  one 
table,  that  the  expense  may  not  be  so  great  ? 
For  so  it  is  division  always  makes  diminution, 
concord  and  agreement  make  increase.  The 
dwellers  in  the  monasteries  live  just  as  the 
faithful  did.  Now  did  ever  any  of  these  die 
cf  hunger?  Now  it  seems  people  are  more 
afraid  of  this  than  of  falling  into  a  boundless 
and  bottomless  deep.  But  if  we  did  make 
actual  trial  of  this,  then  indeed  we  boldly 
venture  upon  this  plan."  So  spoke  Chry- 
sostom  in  a  sermon  delivered  in  Constantinople 
in  the  year  400. 

Ambrose  held  private  property  to  be  sinful ; 
it  was  first  called  into  existence  by  sin.  He 
defends  the  stoical  principle  :  "  Nature  pro- 
vides everything  for  all  to  have  in  common. 
God  has,  in  fact,  created  all  things,  so  that 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  207 

enjoyment  may  be  common  to  all  and  the 
earth  may  be  the  common  possession  of  all. 
Nature  therefore  creates  the  right  to  com- 
munism, but  coercion  makes  of  it  the  right 
to  private  property."  **  Our  Lord  God  has 
willed  that  this  earth  should  be  the  common 
possession  of  all  mankind,  and  its  produce  to 
be  shared  by  all,  but  covetousness  has  divided 
up  this  right  of  possession  "  (De  Nabuthe, 
I,  2;   Expositio  in  Lucam,  xii.  15,  22,  23). 

Even  Augustine,  the  disciple  of  Ambrose, 
was  inclined  to  communism  in  theory  : 
"  Consider  this,  beloved,  that  on  account  of 
private  possessions  exist  lawsuits,  enmities, 
discords,  wars  among  men,  riotous  dissensions 
against  one  another,  offences,  sins,  iniquities, 
murders.  On  account  of  what  ?  On  account 
of  what  we  each  possess.  Let  us  therefore, 
brethren,  abstain  from  the  possession  of 
private  property  or  from  the  love  of  it  if  we 
may  not  from  its  possession  "  (Commentary 
to  Psalm  cxxxi.) .  Augustine  declares  further  : 
"  For  we  have  many  superfluities  if  we  keep 
nothing  but  what  is  necessary.  Find  out 
how  much  he  hath  given  thee,  and  take  of 
that  what  is  enough.  All  other  things  which 
remain  as  superfluities  are  the  necessaries  of 


208    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

others.  The  superfluities  of  the  rich  are  the 
necessaries  of  the  poor.  Seek  what  is  enough 
for  God's  sake,  not  what  is  sufficient  for  your 
greediness  "  (Commentary  to  Psalm  cxlvii.  12). 
This  was  merely  theory,  which  was  made 
use  of  in  preaching.  In  the  same  century 
(the  fourth  to  the  fifth)  as  Ambrose  and 
Augustine  gave  expression  to  these  thoughts, 
the  landworkers  in  North  Africa  were  engaged 
in  a  struggle  for  common  ownership,  or,  at 
least,  equality  of  possession,  and  for  freedom 
and  equality.  This  rural  labour  movement 
against  the  large  landowners  was  known  by 
the  name  of  the  Circumcellion,  and  threw  in 
its  lot  with  the  Donatist  movement,  which 
was  originally  a  purely  religious  or  reformist 
tendency  within  the  Church,  led  by  Bishop 
Donatia,  and  named  after  him.  The  Dona- 
tists  chiefly  directed  themselves  against  the 
abuses  in  the  Church  hierarchy  (priestly 
domination),  and  pursued  such  objects  as 
Church  reforms.  They  were  joined  by  the 
rural  proletarians,  who  were  held  in  subjection 
by  the  big  landlords.  The  Circumcellionists 
even  resorted  to  force.  Church  and  State, 
dogmatic  erudition  and  Roman  exploiters 
united  and  finally  defeated  the  agricultural 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  209 

proletarians.  St.  Augustine  wrote  (411)  against 
the  Donatists  and  Circumcellionists,  arguing 
that  the  just  only  had  a  right  to  property, 
whereas  the  Donatists  and  Circumcellionists 
could  not  have  this  right,  as  they  had  turned 
against  civil  and  ecclesiastical  authority. 

It  was  not  any  kind  of  theory  which  caused 
Augustine  to  direct  his  spiritual  arms  against 
the  rural  proletariat  of  North  Africa  striving 
after  economic  equality.  He  was  familiar 
with  the  Hellenic-Roman  natural  rights,  as 
well  as  with  the  spirit  of  primitive  Christianity 
and  the  Gnosis.  He  was  one  of  the  most 
learned  bishops  of  the  Catholic  Church.  But 
communism,  or  even  economic  equality,  did 
not  form  a  part  of  the  official  dogmas  of  the 
Church.  And  what  was  officially  recognised 
did  not  have  its  origin  in  theory,  but  in 
practical  policy,  which  was  usually  deter- 
mined by  real  or  supposed  class  interests. 
We  perceive  here  the  tragical  conflict  between 
theory  and  practice,  between  the  spiritual 
ideal  and  material  life. 

This  tragical  conflict  cuts  athwart  the  whole 
history  of  religion,  of  ethics  and  ol  communism. 
It  is  evidence  of  the  imperfection  of  human 
nature,  or  of  a  dualism  of  forces  which  struggle 


210    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

with  each  other.  It  constitutes  the  pecuHar 
problem  of  the  reUgious,  philosophical  and 
communist  thought  of  late  antiquity,  of  the 
middle  ages,  and  of  modern  Socialism.  The 
Stoa  conceived  the  origin  of  this  conflict  to 
lie  in  the  ascendancy  of  private  property 
and  of  civilisation;  in  the  abandonment  of 
the  primitive  communistic  state.  Christian 
theology  ascribed  it  to  the  fall  from  grace. 
The  later  Gnosis  explained  it  by  the  existence 
of  two  elemental  antagonistic  forces  :  good  and 
evil,  light  and  darkness.  Utopian  Socialism 
saw  its  cause  in  the  irrational  and  defective 
organisation  of  society.  Marxism  regards  it 
as  the  product  of  an  economic  development, 
which  will  disappear  as  soon  as  society  attains 
to  the  level  of  economic  and  spiritual  com- 
munism. 


5.  The  Millennium — Communistic  Kingdom 
of  God. 

During  the  first  three  centuries  the  belief 
was  almost  universal  among  the  Christians 
that  Jesus  would  soon  return,  and  establish  a 
kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  in  which  he  would 
reign  as  king.     This  was  imagined  to  be  the 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  211 

return  of  the  golden  age  of  primitive  com- 
munism, in  which  complete  equality  would 
prevail,  and  in  which  Nature,  freed  from  the 
blight  of  the  fall  from  grace,  or  from  the  harsh 
dominion  of  Jupiter,  would  again  bring  forth 
her  gifts,  without  effort  and  in  wonderful 
abundance.  The  sources  of  this  belief  are 
easily  discovered  by  those  who  have  atten- 
tively read  our  previous  chapters ;  the  Jewish 
prophets,  Hesiod,  Virgil.  The  old  prophets 
prophesied  that  the  Jews,  purified  by  suffer- 
ing, oppression  and  atonement,  would  be 
called  to  world  dominion,  under  the  direction 
of  Jahweh,  and  this  world  dominion  would 
establish  social  righteousness,  eternal  peace 
in  history  and  nature,  and  joyful  life  for  all. 
An  application  of  this  belief  to  the  Christians 
is  made  by  the  Revelation  (Apocalypse)  of 
John  (chap.  xx.  i-6),  which  was  written  after 
the  persecution  of  the  Christians  by  Nero. 
It  is  stated  there  that  God  will  chain  up  the 
devil  (worldly  power)  for  a  period  of  a  thou- 
sand years,  and  cast  him  into  the  pit,  when 
the  Martyrs  will  rise  again,  and  with  Christ 
will  govern  this  thousand  years'  kingdom. 
This  kingdom  of  God  is  therefore  called  the 
thousand  years'  kingdom,  the  Millennium,  and 


212    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

belief  in  it  is  called  Chiliasm  [chilioi  is  Greek 
for  thousand) .  The  Hellenic  and  Roman  Chris- 
tians identified  Chiliasm  with  the  return  of 
the  Golden  Age,  as  described  by  Hesiod  and 
Virgil.  It  is  thus  not  surprising  that  the 
kingdom  of  God  was  conceived  as  a  time  of 
great  material  and  spiritual  joy,  as  a  com- 
pletely communistic  state,  in  which  the 
Christians,  sinless  like  the  first  men,  would 
be  rewarded  for  all  their  suffering  and  persecu- 
tions. The  masses  clung  to  this  belief  with 
great  tenacity,  and,  in  their  imagination,  were 
not  likely  to  fail  to  endow  the  coming  mil- 
lennial kingdom  with  every  excellence.  Even 
so  eminent  a  Father  of  the  Church  as  Irenaeus 
(Bishop  of  Lyons  towards  the  end  of  the  second 
century)  and  Lactantius  (beginning  of  the 
fourth  century)  regarded  the  fantastic  de- 
scriptions of  the  kingdom  of  God  as  doctrinal 
truths.  Special  pleasure  was  taken  in  describ- 
ing the  effortless  increase  in  the  production 
of  the  earth. 

Gradually  the  Chiliastic  belief  became 
weaker,  and  likewise  the  theologians  were  at 
pains  to  explain  away  the  communistic  spirit 
of  the  Gospels  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  by 
interpretations.     In  the  fourth  century  Chris- 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  213 

tianity  became  a  buttress  of  the  State.  Com- 
munism fled  to  the  cloisters  and  to  the  heretics, 
but  the  communistic  and  Chihastic  aspira- 
tions revived  with  every  rebeUion  during  the 
middle  ages  and  the  modern  times,  especially 
with  the  Anabaptists  and  in  the  English 
Revolution.  Christianity,  however,  was  the 
sole  vital  organisation  of  the  Empire.  In  the 
third  century  the  Roman  Emperors  became 
distinctly  aware  of  its  power,  but  they  did 
not  know  of  its  internal  transformation  from 
a  social  revolutionary  movement  to  a  con- 
servative force.  Once  more  they  instituted 
extensive  persecutions  of  the  Christians.  Soon 
after  they  abandoned  those  futile  tactics  and 
conceded  to  Christianity  a  status  equal  with 
that  of  other  religions  (313) .  Towards  the  end 
of  the  fourth  century  Christianity  became  the 
State  Church.  It  triumphed  because  it  had 
adapted  itself  to  the  institution  of  private 
property  and  governmental  politics.  No  longer 
did  it  strive  after  communistic  ideals,  but  it 
wrangled  over  dogmas  and  metaphysical 
articles  of  belief.  The  masses  became  mute, 
the  theologians  became  the  spokesmen. 


214    SOCIAL   STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

6.  Downfall  of  the  Ancient  World. 

The  retrogression  of  the  Roman  Empire 
proceeded  inevitably.  The  feudahsation  of 
landlordism,  the  binding  of  the  small  tenant 
to  the  soil,  the  organisation  of  the  urban  hand- 
workers in  guilds,  were  partly  the  cause,  and 
partly  the  effect  of  the  economic  paralysis 
and  retrogression.  The  depressed  condition 
of  the  agricultural  population  was  obviously 
not  calculated  to  attract  the  town  proletarians 
back  to  the  land.  Further,  with  the  increas- 
ing subjection  of  the  country  people  there 
began  an  emigration  to  the  towns,  where, 
however,  relatively  few  workers  could  find 
employment. 

The  restriction  of  production  and  the 
diminution  of  the  means  of  subsistence  ex- 
pressed themselves  in  a  decrease  of  the  popula- 
tion, and  a  reduction  of  the  amount  of  labour 
power.  And  this  happened  at  a  time  when 
the  German  tribes,  Goths,  Allemans,  Vandals, 
Burgundians  and  Franks,  began  to  press  more 
and  more  strongly  upon  the  confines  of  the 
Empire.  The  Empire  needed  soldiers,  but 
the  landlords  needed  workers,  and  the  man- 
power requirements  of  both  forces  could  not 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  215 

be  satisfied,  because,  as  stated,  the  popula- 
tion decreased.  Large-scale  landownership 
was  victorious,  and  retained  the  workers. 
The  defence  of  the  Empire  became  weakened 
to  an  increasing  extent,  so  that  the  Germans, 
Huns,  Avars  and  other  surging  tribes  event- 
ually succeeded  in  overrunning  Rome.  The 
soldier  Emperor  Diocletian  made  some 
attempt  at  re-organisation,  on  comprehensive 
and  absolutist  lines,  at  the  turn  of  the  third 
century.  He  transformed  the  Roman  Empire 
into  a  Caesarian  and  military  despotism,  at- 
tached the  whole  population  to  their  callings, 
in  caste  fashion,  regulated  all  and  everything, 
but  the  Empire  was  suffering  from  social  and 
economic  sickness,  and  could  not  be  healed. 
This  was  the  period  of  the  rise  of  the  Christian 
Church,  the  period  of  the  death  struggle  of 
the  Roman  world  empire.  At  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century  it  dissolved  into  two  portions : 
the  Empire  of  the  West  and  the  Empire  of  the 
East.  The  former  succumbed  to  the  Germans, 
and  the  latter  subsisted  for  some  time  as  the 
Byzantine  Empire. 


216    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

7.  Causes  of  the  Downfall  of  the  Ancient 
World. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  described 
the  last  phases  of  the  Roman  Empire  or  the 
Ancient  World.  We  spoke  of  the  incurable 
sickness  which  had  fallen  upon  this  Empire. 
We  do  not  yet  know,  however,  what,  in  the 
last  resort,  was  the  cause  which  prepared  the 
end  of  a  political  organism  once  so  powerful. 
Overwhelming  hostile  forces  could  indeed 
destroy  a  great  deal,  but  the  German  tribes 
and  the  Huns  were  superior  to  the  Romans 
neither  in  numbers  nor  in  organisation.  The 
success  of  these  tribes  was  finally  possible  only 
because  Rome  was  already  sick  and  could  not 
discover  within  itself  the  means  to  social 
recovery.  What  then  was  the  real  cause 
which  accomplished  the  downfall  of  Rome, 
and,  therefore,  of  the  ancient  world? 

The  cause  is  to  be  found  solely  in  the 
incapacity  of  Rome  to  develop  the  productive 
forces,  to  increase  production,  and  to  satisfy 
the  material  needs  of  such  a  great  empire. 
Had  Rome  remained  an  agricultural  empire, 
based  upon  a  numerous  and  independent 
peasantry,  or  had  it  developed  a  technically 


PRIMITIVE   CHRISTIANITY  217 

progressive  industrial  life,  alongside  of  the 
latifundia  economy,  it  would  have  been  in  a 
position  to  supply  the  population  with  the 
necessary  means  of  life.  The  result  would 
have  been  a  constantly  growing  population, 
which  would  have  been  able  to  furnish  suffi- 
cient troops,  technical  means  and  the  neces- 
sary finances  to  defend  the  boundaries  of  the 
Empire. 

But  Rome  remained,  on  the  one  hand, 
wedded  to  relatively  primitive  modes  of  pro- 
duction, and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  latifundia 
economy  made  an  end  of  the  free  peasantry. 
The  consequence  was  a  shrinkage  in  the  oppor- 
tunities for  existence,  and  therefore  a  con- 
stant decrease  of  the  number  and  strength  of 
the  population.  The  despotism  of  Diocletian, 
the  regulations  of  the  State  and  the  police, 
instead  of  remedying,  aggravated  this  evil, 
by  narrowing  still  more  the  already  slender 
basis  of  life. 

Why,  however,  did  Rome  remain  attached 
to  primitive  modes  of  production  ?  Because  it 
was  based  on  unfree  labour. 

The  material  retrogression  was  the  conse- 
quence of  this.  Slavery  and  dependence 
impressed    the    stamp   of    degradation   and 


218    SOCIAL  STRUGGLES   IN  ANTIQUITY 

dishonour  upon  productive  labour.  The  best 
minds  and  the  most  gifted  artists  turned  away 
from  productive  labour,  which  they  held  to 
be  unworthy  of  a  free  man.  In  this  state  of 
affairs  technical  progress  was  impossible.  As 
soon  as  the  means  of  existence  proved  insuffi- 
cient, the  Romans  did  not  seek  new  labour 
methods,  scientific  and  mechanical  inven- 
tions, improved  tools,  etc.,  but  helped  them- 
selves by  force,  by  war,  by  conquest,  and  by 
robbery.  Not  higher  production  of  labour, 
but  tribute  from  defeated  countries,  was  the 
object  of  Rome.  As,  however,  Rome  had 
conquered  and  plundered  the  ancient  world, 
and  had  squandered  the  wealth  of  which  it 
had  been  despoiled,  the  material  basis  of  the 
Empire  became  so  narrow  that  it  could  no 
longer  support  the  superstructure.  The  im- 
pact of  the  undisciplined  barbarian  peoples 
which  were  set  in  motion  sufficed,  therefore, 
to  overthrow  the  last  great  Empire  of  the 
Ancient  World. 


INDEX 


Agis,    King    of    Sparta,    69; 

Communist  martyr,  74 
Ambrose,   Church  Father,  on 

natural  right,  206 
Amos,  Jewish  prophet,  29 
Anacreon,  on  power  of  money, 

59 

Antiochus  Epiphanus,  at- 
tempts forcible  Hellenising 
of  Jews,  182 

Antique  world,  collapse  of, 
214;  causes,  216 

Antiquity  and  the  present 
time,  15 

Antiquity  and  modern  times, 
170 

Antiquity,  essence  and  sig- 
nificance of,  7-1 1 

Apocalypse  (Revelation  of 
John),  211 

Appian,  Roman  historian,  128; 
on  Tiberius  Gracchus,  140 

Aristonikos,  leader  of  slave  in- 
surrection, 153 

Aristophanes,  Greek  comedy 
writer  against  Communism 
and  against  avarice,  109 

Aristotle,  1 7 ;  against  Com- 
munism, 98-103 ;  on  causes 
of  social  necessity,  102 

Augustine,  Church  Father,  on 
private  property,  207 

Baal  and  Jahweh,  21-27 
Barabbas,   Jewish  revolution- 
ary, 192 


Barnabas,  Church  Father,  on 
Communism,  200 

Caesar  and  the  Teutons,  10; 
and  social  monarchy,  166 

Catiline,  143-149 

Chiliasm,  212 

Christianity  and  the  Prole- 
tariat in  the  Roman  Empire, 
i8o 

Chrysostom,  Church  Father, 
on  Communism,  205 

Church  Fathers  and  Com- 
munism, 199-208 

Cicero,  opponent  of  Catiline, 
143;  anti-social,  146-147 

Class  antagonisms,  origin  of, 
13;  sharpening  of,  14; 
among  the  Israelites,  24-40 ; 
among  the  Greeks,  54-60; 
in  Sparta,  62 ;  in  Athens, 
82;  Plato  on,  88;  Aristotle 
on,  98;  in  Rome,  132; 
Tiberius  Gracchus  on,  139; 
Catiline  on,  148;  Horace 
on,  168;  Seneca  the  elder 
on,  169;  in  Judaea,  182;  in 
primitive  Christianity,  196 

Class  State,  Plato  on,  57 

Cleomenes,  Spartan  King,  74 

Communal  meals,  64,  72,  80 

Communist  descriptions,  121 

Community  of  women,  65,  91, 
113,  122,  202 

Corn  supplies  and  the  Roman 
proletariat,  142 


219 


220 


INDEX 


Daniel,  book  of,  183 

Debts  cancellation,  14,  40,  72, 

82,  145 
Democracy    in    Athens,     83 ; 

Plato's  objection  to,  86 
Demos,  significance  of,  59 
Diodorus,  Greek  historian,  78 
Draco,  Athenian  law-giver,  12, 

81 

Ebionites,  194 

Education  in  Sparta,  64 ;    in 

Plato's  Ideal  State,  92  ;  Aris- 
totle on,  93 
Egypt,    Hellenic,    123;     social 

economic  conditions,  123 
Essenes,   Jewish  Communistic 

sect,     45 ;      their    mode    of 

living,  46-49 
Ethics,   influence   on   religion, 

179 
Eupolis,  Greek  social  comedy 

writer,  108 
Ezekiel,  Jewish  prophet,  39 

Gladiators,  slaves  as,  155 
Golden  Age,   11,   19,  54,   107, 

108,  173,  199 
Gracchi,  139 

Helots  in  Sparta,  67 
Hesiod,  Greek  poet,  54 
History,  divisions  of,  7 
Hosea,  Jewish  prophet,  31 

Isaiah,  Jewish  prophet,  38 ; 
on  the  social  life  of  Pales- 
tine, 38 ;  on  eternal  peace, 
39 

Jahweh,  significance  of,  21 ; 
conflict  with  Baal,  23  ;  and 
Hebrew  primitive  society, 
26 ;   as  universal  God,  29 

James,  Epistles  of,  196; 
against    PauUne    doctrines, 


196;  against  rich  Chris- 
tians, 197 

Jeremiah,  Jewish  prophet,  35 

Jesus,  186;  social  atmosphere 
of  his  influence,  187;  origin, 
187  ;  bent  of  his  mind,  187  ; 
prologue  of  his  life  course, 
187;  early  solidarity  with 
his  people,  188;  change  in 
his  world  outlook,  188;  his 
life  mission,  188;  against 
force,  190 ;  for  spiritual  re- 
demption of  mankind,  190; 
turns  from  his  people,  192 ; 
martyrdom,  192 

Josephus,  Jewish  historian,  45  ; 
on  the  Essenes,  45 

Jubilee  year,  41 ;  Jewish  re- 
form efforts,  41 

Judas  Maccabeus,  Jewish  hero, 
182 

Labour,  despised  in  antiquity, 
67 ;  cause  of  downfall  c  f 
Rome,  217 

Land,  redistribution  of,  14, 
40,  62,  71,  82,  145 

Latifundia  in  Rome,  138,  167, 
217 

Love  conflicts  in  Communist 
society,  114 

Lipara,  Communistic  settle- 
ment, 78 

Livy,  Roman  historian,  129 

Lycurgus,  Spartan  lawgiver, 
61 ;  establishes  Communism 
in  Sparta,  62 ;  his  consti- 
tution famous  throughout 
antiquity,  66;  defects  of 
Lycurgian  constitution,  67 

Malachi,  Jewish  prophet,  40 
Mary,  the  mother  of  Jesus,  186 
Messiah,  186 

Micah,  Jewish  prophet,  32  ;  on 
eternal  peace,  32 


INDEX 


221 


Modem    times,    characteristic 

of,  15 
Monotheism,  ethical,  13,  28 
Moral  philosophy,  13 
Mythology  and  theology,  12 

Natural  rights :  theory  of 
Communism,  16;  Plato  and 
Aristotle  on,  16,  17;  essence 
of  natural  rights,  17,  18; 
founded  by  Zeno,  17  ;  propa- 
gated by  Stoics,  17;  in- 
fluence on  civilisation,  17; 
Philo  on,  46;  Seneca  on, 
169;  Church  Fathers  on, 
200 

Natural  state  of  peoples : 
fables  of  Paradise  and 
Golden  Age,  11,  174;  Plato 
on,  16;  Virgil  and  Horace 
on, 175 

Panchaens,  124 

Patricians  and  Plebeians,  136 

Paul,  Apostle,  193 ;  his  char- 
acter, 193 ;  organisation  of 
Christianity,  194;  on  mar- 
ried life,  49 

Peloponnesian  War :  social 
effect  on  Sparta,  85 ;  on 
Plato,  98  ;  on  social  struggles 
in  Athens,  126 

Phaleas  of  Chalcedon,  Com- 
munist reformer,  102 

Pharisees,  Jewish  party,  184 

Phereakrates,  social  comedy 
writer  in  Greece,  106 

Philo,  Jewish  religious  philo- 
sopher, 45 ;  description  of 
Essenes,  46 

Philosopher  kings,  91 ;  as 
saviours  of  the  State,  91 ; 
their  education,  92 

Plato,  Greek  philosopher,  85 ; 
on  natural  right,  97 ;  on 
war,  98 ;   on  class  state,  86 ; 


on    communal    meals,    90; 
difference  between  Plato  and 
Lycurgus,      97 ;       Aristotle 
against,  98 
Plebeians,  130;  unrest  among, 

131 

Plebiscite,  133 

Pliny  on  Roman  Latifundia, 
168 

Plutarch  on  Lycurgus,  62 ; 
on  Tiberius  Gracchus,  139; 
character  of  Spartacus,  156 

Polybius,  Roman  historian, 
128 

Pompey,  Roman  general,  con- 
quers Palestine,  185 

Poverty  and  riches,  59 ;  Theo- 
gnis  on,  59 

Power,  temporal,  50,  190 

Prophets,  Hebrew,  27 ;  their 
character,  28  ;  universal  out- 
look of,  28 ;  creators  of 
social  ethics,  29;  of  Mono- 
theism, 29 ;  of  ideal  of 
eternal  peace.  39 

Renaissance,  8 

Righteousness,     Jewish     pro- 
phets on,  30 
Romans,  character  of,  129 

Sadducees,  Jewish  party,  183 
Sallust,  Roman  historian,  129; 

on  Catiline  conspiracy,  143 
Seisachteia     (throwing-off     of 

burdens),  82 
Seneca,    Roman    philosopher, 

168;    and  Apostle  Paul,  177 
Slave  insurrections  in  Roman 

Empire,     149;      in    Apulia, 

151;      in    Sicily,     151;      in 

Asia    Minor,     153 ;      under 

Spartacus,  155 
Social   legislation   among   the 

Jews,  40 
Solon,  Athenian  reformer,  82 


222 


INDEX 


Spartacus,  155;   history  of  his 
struggles,  155-165 

Stoic  school,    1 7  ;    propagates 
natural  right,  17;    is  Anar- 
chist-Communist, 
leader  Zeno,   17; 
on    Christianity, 
Paul,  193 

Sun  State,  significance  of,  154 


19;  its 
influence 
177;     on 


Telekleides,      Greek     comedy 

writer,  109 
TertuUian,  Church  Father,  201 
Theognis,  Greek  poet,  58 


Usury  in  antiquity,  56,  131 

Virgil,  Roman  poet,  174;    on 
the  Golden  Age,  174 

War,   revolutionary  effect  of, 
25 ;  Jewish  prophets  against, 

29 
Women's  Parliament  and  Com- 
munism, no 

Zachariah,  Jewish  prophet,  40 
Zephaniah,     Jewish    prophet, 
36 


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